Shimla Mayor, ex-mayor in a war of words over garbage dumpers

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 14

A war of words has erupted between Shimla Municipal Mayor Satya Kaundal and former mayor Sanjay Chauhan over the MC gifting garbage dumpers to the Lahaul-Spiti district administration.

Chauhan has slammed the MC for this “unwarranted generosity”, saying on the one hand the civic body was burdening people with increased taxes and fee on the pretext of scarce resources, on the other it was gifting away dumpers worth lakhs of rupees.

Satya Kaundal, said, “Shimla has been made dumper free as per the orders of the High Court. So, these dumpers were rotting in our stores. What’s wrong if these have been sent to a place where they could be utilised? After all, Lahaul and Spiti is also a part of the state,” she said.

“Also, the MC itself receives donations from individuals and corporates. People donate us benches, tables for schoolchildren, uniform for our garbage collectors. In fact, we have recently received two sweeping machines from Power Grid worth Rs 2 crore under their CSR programme. So what’s wrong if we give away something that’s of no use to us?” she said.

Chauhan replied, “As per the Municipal Act, these dumpers should have been auctioned if they had to be disposed. The MC is under financial stress, it could have earned some money through auction.” “These dumpers could have been used for garbage collection by placing them on mobile dumper placers,” he said.