Patna Municipal Corporation workers clean up garbage on Bank Road. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Residents’ hope of better sanitation work by private agencies in the state capital suffered a setback on Monday. They will have to bear the stink longer, at least till June.

The high court on Monday stayed the Patna Municipal Corporation’s (PMC’s) fresh tender process for carrying out sanitation work in 63 of the 72 wards of the state capital till further order.

A bench of Justice Sheema Ali Khan passed the directive on a petition filed by A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited, challenging the PMC’s decision on the grounds that its contract for carrying out solid waste management (including sanitation work) in all the 72 wards of Patna had not yet been terminated.

The matter, in all likelihood, would be taken up for hearing after the court’s summer vacation gets over in June.

Anurag Saurav, the counsel for A2Z, which provided sanitation services in select parts of the state capital, submitted that out of the 72 wards in the capital, Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BuidCo), on behalf of the PMC, published a fresh tender advertisement on March 28 this year for carrying out sanitation work in 63 wards without cancelling its contract with the PMC signed in January, 2010.

Stating that A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited was awarded the contract for carrying out the sanitation work in all the wards of the corporation, Saurav contended that the private player had been carrying out work in 28 wards till July last year when it stopped work owing to non-payment of dues.

Of the 28 wards, A2Z had been carrying out primary collection work (door-to-door basis) and secondary collection work (public bins) in 19 wards, the counsel said, adding that the work was to be extended to all 72 wards according to the agreement but suddenly A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited stopped work owing to non-payment of its dues, Rs 7.62 crore which accumulated over 19 months.

Saurav submitted that the PMC admits A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited worked in just nine wards, evident from the fact that it had issued fresh tenders for 63 wards only. But additional advocate-general (I) Lalit Kishore submitted that there was a vigilance case pending against the petitioner, A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited, and they were not carrying out the work deliberately.

On April 6 this year, a high court bench of Justice S.N. Hussain had reserved its judgment on a petition by A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited seeking directive to the PMC to make the payment of dues.