Vehicles are a costly affair for Vijayawada Municipal Corporation

Vijayawada: Despite spending crores of rupees on buying vehicles for various wings, the vehicle maintenance wing of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation continues to have many lined up for repair, giving a wide scope for corruption to the officials. Vehicles are kept idle for a long time in the depots in the name of a small repair. During this time, private vehicles are provided to the officials concerned, by hiring them from travel agencies or private persons for very high prices. Meanwhile, the repairs also cost no less. Both expenses put VMC to loss.

At present, the VMC has 14 dumper placers, 9 small tippers, 2 tractors, 2 hook loaders, 4 big tippers for the sanitation department, which are maintained by 65 drivers and 56 cleaners. The workshop is equipped with experienced mechanics but there are allegations that the depot officials are sending the vehicles to Autonagar for repairs, to submit bloated bills. This happened many times with the sanitation cleaning machinery.

There are allegations of corruption at all levels in the VMC but no higher official speaks about them. An official, wishing to remain anonymous, said: "Once our officials orders an inquiry into all these things, verifies the bills, the whole issue will get revealed. But the higher officials do not seem to have such an intention. They are busy with the beautification works and waste management."