In Four Years, Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Has Lost 400 Cr On Garbage-Collection Vehicles Never Existed

The Bengaluru’s Civilian Authority, Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has just handed over an investigation relating to the garbage-collection vehicles scam over to the CID (Criminal Investigation Department), Karnataka. It was revealed that BBMP basically spent a lot of money on fictitious vehicles that never actually existed. The total loss of BBMP was estimated to be Rs. 400 crore.

Fictitious vehicles that never existed

According to New Delhi Television Limited, the scam was uncovered after the contractors were reluctant to install GPS systems in all garbage disposal vehicles.

Manjunath Prasad - Commissioner of BBMP said that he has discussed the matters with Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka - Parameshware and he agreed to send the investigation to the Criminal Investigation Department.

BBMP is using two types of vehicles. And one of them is the compactor and the other is the auto-tipper. These two vehicles are both used to gather the trash and garbage from 198 wards. It is estimated that there are around 3,800 tonnes of trash and garbage are collected every day.

An auto tipper

A garbage compactor

According to the Banglore Mirror, there were 3,584 registered auto tippers but only 2,537 of them could be found. Out of the 628 registered compactors, there were 100 of them found missing. Mr. Sarfaraz Khan, the Joint Commissioner of BBMP, wrote in a letter to D Randeep, the additional commissioner, claiming that those garbage-collection vehicles have never existed.

He also claimed that the BBMP actually did suspect the scam as after that they conducted an investigation relating to the matter. He added BBMP paid the bills for those vehicles on time and it was later revealed that garbage and trash weren’t cleared or collected.

The BBMP had to suffer a heavy loss as they had to pay for more vehicles than they actually received. A sum of Rs 1.5 lakh for one compactor and Rs. 59,000 for one auto tipper was all paid by BBMP. Because the contractors claimed to be able to provide a higher amount of vehicle than they actually could afford, they managed to scam around Rs. 400 crores in the last 4 years.