Garbage being transported to Bhuasuni from the transit transport station near Sainik School in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 23: The state vigilance filed two cases involving 24 employees of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) last month concerning alleged irregularities in solid waste management by the civic body.

In the cases filed on January 17, the special vigilance cell named an executive engineer, an assistant engineer, two health officers and 10 sanitary inspectors of the corporation.

The vigilance has also accused two sanitary contractors and the secretary of a non-government organisation, involved in the collection and dumping of solid waste and cleaning activities in the city along with the BMC, of involvement in the scam.

Vigilance director Anup Patnaik said: “Our sleuths found that the officials, along with the sanitary inspectors and contractors, showed that the solid waste was being transported by tractors and trucks. However, the garbage was actually not being transported by such vehicles. After checking the data of the road transport officers of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Chandikhol, it was discovered that the vehicles were actually two-wheelers. This way, the team cheated the state exchequer of around Rs 7.55 lakh. But this calculation is from a random sample and the total loss could be much more.”

The sleuths found that there were serious irregularities in the city’s solid waste management in the last financial year. For example, while records showed that money was paid for the use of an excavator, no excavator was actually used. The registration number of the excavator mentioned in the files was that of a tractor. While an excavator charges Rs 840 per hour, a tractor charges Rs 281.

“Around Rs 40 lakh was paid to a solid waste contractor for using a hydraulic excavator-cum-leveller whereas inquiry has revealed that the registration number is that of a tractor,” said the vigilance chief.

“As sanitary inspectors were scrutinising the bills for solid waste management, their role was probed,” said a vigilance official.

Councillor of ward No. 41 Pratap Kumar Jena compared the solid waste scam of BMC to the mining scam that has hit the state government. “It is a huge irregularity being carried out through a nexus of officials, operators and their agents,” Jena said.

“Not only are they making fake bills of larger vehicles while smaller ones are actually being used, the number of trips actually made and found mentioned in the bills in most cases are very different,” he added.

BMC sources said that on most occasions, a tractor was shown making eight trips to a temporary transport site (either at Sainik School or Ghatikia) from the wards, which was not technically possible.