Rs 9.69 crore spent but no garbage disposal facility in Nongpoh, Tura

SHILLONG: Tura and Nongpoh town are suffering from want of a proper waste disposal facility. The completion and commissioning of solid waste management plants at Tura and Nongpoh were to have been completed by March 2012 but three years down the line there is no sign of the facilities. The noble objective of scientific disposal of waste in both the towns has not been achieved even after spending Rs 9.69 crore over the last 4-5 years.
This was confirmed from an excerpt in the Audit Report 0f 2014-15. The work for design, fabrication, erection and commissioning of the compost plants is yet to be undertaken at both plants. But an amount of Rs 9.69 crore has been spent on the projects till July 2015.
A joint verification of the projects at Tura and Nongpoh found that of the 10 Tata Ace Garbage Tippers allotted to Nongpoh one was had been burnt and beyond repair. This was not reported to the AG (Audit) Meghalaya, as required under the Meghalaya Financial Rules 1981. Of the remaining nine vehicles only six Tippers are being used for collection of garbage in Nongpoh while three are damaged.
Interestingly none of the vehicles allotted to Nongpoh Town Committee have been registered.
In Tura, seven Tata Ace Garbage Tippers were found to have been damaged and lying unutilized. Further one Dumper Placer was found damaged and lying unutilized. No action was taken to repair the vehicles. Another four Tata Ace Garbage Tippers were lying idle in Tura and not utilised. Moreover these vehicles were not even registered.
The total cost of the vehicles lying damaged or unutilized is Rs 78.81 lakhs which is needless expenditure.
Garbage disposal in both Tura and Nongpoh has been haphazardly done and even medical waste is not disposed of as stipulated. The vermi-compost plant constructed 13 years ago in Tura for a population of 40 thousand people is now catering to 70,000-80,000 people.
It is learnt that Urban Affairs Department gave the projects to MGCC which outsourced it to Anderson and Sons which in turn outsourced it to Bherowals, a big contracting firm based in Tura, and undertaking all PHE Department projects.
The question now is where has the Rs 9.69 crore been invested and who has benefitted from it because the public of Tura and Nongpoh are certainly not the beneficiaries.