Unattended garbage in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, May 11: Cleanliness is not a privilege that all residents of the city can enjoy, thanks to the Patna Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) inability to pay the private company hired to carry out the sanitation work.

A year-and-a-half ago, PMC appointed A2Z Infrastructure Limited to clean garbage from the city streets. However, the company has refused to extend its services to the entire corporation area. Reason: the civic body owes A2Z around Rs 6.47 crore.

“We have continued with our work in the city because of public interest and our commitment to the city. There has been absolutely no cash flow from the corporation. We have been assured repeatedly but are yet to get a single penny. I don’t know how long we can continue like this,” said Vikas Jha, deputy general manager, A2Z Infrastructure Limited.

PMC had entered into an agreement with the private company in 2008, and A2Z started work on nine thoroughfares in January last year. Nine more wards were included in the service a few months later.

At present, Frazer Road, Bailey Road, Boring Road, Boring Canal Road, Exhibition Road, Beer Chand Patel Path, Ashok Rajpath, Old Bypass Road and Hardinge Road are under the care of A2Z. Residents of these areas claim the sanitation conditions have improved considerably since the private company took over the duties.

According to the agreement, PMC has to pay Rs 753 per tonne of garbage collected from the city.

“At present, we collect about 200 tonnes of solid waste from the city every day. If we spread operations to the entire city, we will collect around 800 tonnes. The corporation will have to pay around Rs 22 crore annually,” said Jha.

Sources in the civic body, however, said the agreement with the company had been made without the approval of the PMC board, which had refused to grant a no-objection certificate. The go-ahead by the elected representatives is a must.

“When the agreement was made, the board was unstable and there was no mayor or deputy mayor. In December last year, the PMC board finally approved the agreement. It was also decided that all dues would be cleared but nothing has happened yet,” said a PMC official.

“For the past five months, no official has remained in the chair of the PMC commissioner for long. At present, PMC commissioner Devesh Sehra is in Bengal for the elections. The new commissioner, Rahul Singh, has been given the charge on temporary basis. Under these conditions, we will wait for things to stabilise. The payments to the company would not be delayed any further than that,” said mayor Afzal Imam.