PMC to levy tenfold fines on sanitation contractors, introduce biometric attendance

The Pune Municipal Corporation administration is preparing strict measures to stop delays in street cleaning and sanitation work, fake attendance of workers, and the practice of claiming payment by showing work as complete on paper without doing it. Key changes are being made to the conditions of the fresh tenders being drawn up for cleaning work.

Additional Commissioner Prajit Nair said it has been decided to impose a fine ten times the existing penalty on contractors who are negligent or fail to finish work within the stipulated time. He also said biometric attendance and geo-tagged photographs will be used to check workers' presence and the actual state of cleaning work. The main aim of the new tender conditions is to fix the responsibility of contractors in the city's sanitation system and to keep effective control over the quality of work.

So far, many complaints have been received about the presence of sanitation workers, the manpower actually available and the quality of work. Some contractors show the number of workers and their attendance on paper, while the required workers are not present at the work site. Technology will now be used to stop such irregularities.

Negligence in cleaning work or failure to meet the responsibilities set in the tender will prove costly for contractors. A proposal is under way to raise the penalty currently imposed tenfold. Where a lapse earlier drew a fine of Rs 1,000, the amount will now go up to Rs 10,000. The decision is seen as important in getting contractors to finish work on time and to the expected quality.

Under the new tender conditions, making the presence of at least 85 per cent of workers mandatory for payment of contractors' bills is being considered. If the prescribed attendance is not met, payment of the contractors' bills could be held up. A biometric attendance system is being readied for this. It will give a record of workers' actual presence and help stop cases of showing fake attendance.

There is a plan to give supervisors a mobile app to monitor cleaning work. Through the app, it will be mandatory to take and upload photographs at the cleaning site itself. A geo-tag will also be recorded with each photograph, so it will be possible to know exactly where the workers or machines are. Notably, old pictures already stored in a phone's gallery cannot be uploaded. This will stop cases of showing work as complete on the basis of old pictures or papers without doing it.