Aurangabad: The civic administration’s decision to hire three non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to create awareness among residents on segregation of waste has not borne any fruitful result and drained Rs 1.5 crore from the civic coffers.The standing committee of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had approved the proposal to engage three NGOs—Feedback Foundation, Knowledge Links and Action for Better Tomorrow Society (ABTS)— in July for carrying out the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign for waste management.The three organisations were hired without any tendering process and solely on the recommendations of municipal commissioner Nipun Vinayak.According to standing committee chairman Renukadas Vaidya, the decision to engage the organisations was taken without any tendering process as the city was in the midst of a waste emergency. In an emergency, section 67 (3) (c) of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949, allows the municipal commissioner to take immediate action bypassing the regular approval process provided he reports to the standing committee and to the corporation on the reasons and the cost incurred for the action.Each NGO was hired at a cost of Rs 10 lakh per month for a 5-month contract—taking the total expenditure to Rs 1.5 crore.While Feedback Foundation worked in zones 1,2 & 4, Knowledge Links worked in zones 3 &7 and ABTS in zones 8 & 9. The door-to-door segregation level in the city was 75% when the NGOs were engaged and has not improved since. AMC has not been able to feed the sole mechanical waste processing site at Chikalthana with 16 tonnes of segregated waste.A proposal to extend the contract was placed in the standing committee meeting on Saturday.“The performance of the NGOs is not up to the mark. They gave us a presentation on their work during the meeting. Their claims are not vetted by the municipal corporation. We have asked the administration to prepare an evaluation report. The final decision will be taken by the municipal commissioner,” said Vaidya adding that he didn’t think the commissioner would continue their contract.Members of the standing committee unanimously agreed that the agencies have not been able to do their job efficiently.Head of AMC’s solid waste management cell Nandkishore Bhombe said that a decision on the extension of the contract was expected to be taken in two days.

Stay updated with all the Latest Aurangabad headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.