Lion Services is paid Rs4.40 cr a month for cleaning southern sectorsMC slaps Rs8.5L fine on sanitation firm

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 17

A private sanitation company, Lion Services Ltd, which is paid a whopping Rs 4.40 crore per month for taking care of sanitation in southern sectors by the MC, is once again in news for wrong reasons.

Following inspection by MC officials, the firm has been fined Rs 8.50 lakh for deficiency in service. MC officials visited different areas and imposed the penalty on the company for various violations, including insanitary condition.

The amount has been detected from its monthly payment. The firm was fined earlier as well.

Besides, Chief Sanitary Inspector (CSI) has been asked to verify whether 600 workers claimed by the company to be working in southern areas actually exist.

Speaking to Chandigarh Tribune, Pradyuman Bakshi, general manager, Lion Services Ltd, said, “It is a routine procedure. It is there in our contract that whenever the MC finds any deficiency in our service, they can make a deduction in our payment. Further, all workers are on job as we have online monitoring system.”

Councillor Devinder Singh Babla, Leader of the Opposition in the MC House, alleged, “It is an open loot by the broke MC. They are paying about Rs 5 crore a month to the company, which comes to about Rs 60 crore a year. Even the local BJP MP had questioned the work of the company in a House meeting. If the company is so efficient why did we slip to the 20th position in the national Swachh rankings? Even in the MC’s cleanliness survey, no southern ward figured in the top three positions. Why splurge money when better work was being done manually and that too at a very less amount.”

Federation of Sector Welfare Associations Chandigarh (FOSWAC) chairman Baljinder Singh Bittu said, “We are not satisfied with the working of Lion Services. The MC is paying Rs 4.50 crore, but the workers of the firm are hardly seen in the city. There work is not visible. Why cannot the MC get this work done manually through its own workers? A penalty of even Rs 50 lakh is nothing for the firm because it is being paid huge money.”