Gurgaon: Municipal Corporation of Manesar (MCM) has terminated the contract of the agency responsible for the operation and maintenance of 34 community and public toilets after civic officials found its performance below standards.Senior deputy mayor Praveen Chaudhary said on top of their non-performance, the agency was being paid more than what agencies with the same responsibilities were being paid. “We had made an assessment that the maintenance and operations of a single toilet costs around Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,000. However, the agency was being paid nearly Rs 10,000 for the same. Our monthly budget for the maintenance of public toilets is around Rs 6 lakh. But they were being paid Rs 8.5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh. So, I proposed the termination of the contract since it is the taxpayers’ money and it should not be wasted,” he said.The difference, if these figures are borne out by the contract and payment records, is substantial, he added.MCM joint commissioner Puneet Kumar said officials had carried out an inspection of the public toilets under their maintenance before issuing the termination notice. “Our teams inspected the toilets and found the work of the firm unsatisfactory on the basis of which a report was prepared. We then terminated the contract of the agency,” he said.In the same termination notice, MCM directed its senior sanitary inspectors and assistant sanitary inspectors to take charge of these 34 toilets for their operation and maintenance. The concerned officials shall ensure proper physical verification of the toilets at the time of taking over and shall ensure that the condition of the premises, fixtures, water supply, electricity, sanitation facilities and other available assets is duly checked and recorded. It also directed the sanitation staff to keep the premises under their control till the finalisation of the next tender and secure videography at their own level.“There are around 110 public toilets in Manesar. We are soon going to prepare an estimate for the operation and maintenance of all these toilets. Then the tenders will be floated for all these toilets,” added Chaudhary.
