MARGAO
Just short of a year since their purchase, the two e-rickshaws purchased and commissioned by the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) on last year’s Independence Day are rusting at the municipal garage at the old market due to lack of maintenance.
Procurement of the two e-rickshaws was done in haste, with disregard for the necessary procedures. The vehicles were bought with the intention of keeping the city’s footpaths and pavements clean.
MMC officials have said that they have been unable to locate the keys to the three-wheelers, so they have been unable to drive them to Sonsodo to use them to clean the garbage trucks.
A visit to the MMC old market garage showed that the two e-rickshaws, which cost the civic body around Rs 8 lakh, are virtually corroding since the firm abandoned the project last year.
The MMC’s decision to award the contract to a particular firm without calling for tenders has been called into question. The civic body did not even require a performance guarantee from the firm when it awarded the contract.
When the firm abandoned the project last year, the MMC was unable to cash the cheque it had issued because the firm had instructed the bank to block any payments.
The civic body has not yet referred the matter to the Vigilance for a thorough investigation, even though no procedural requirements were followed by the MMC when it contracted the firm.
That’s not all. The two e-rickshaws were procured by the civic body for deployment in the municipal areas of Margao and Fatorda. The two vehicles carried advertisements of Model Margao floated by Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and Vijai Sardesai’s Fatorda Forward, throwing up questions how the political advertisements found a mention on the vehicles when the MMC had paid for the vehicles.
In an attempt to put the two e-rickshaws to good use, MMC Chairperson Damu Shirodkar decided to station them at Sonsodo to clean the garbage trucks that return to the city after unloading their waste.
However, the vehicles have been unable to reach Sonsodo because the MMC does not have the keys to them. Reports say that the keys were in the possession of the firm before it abandoned the project.
