Bombay High Court lawyer Afroz Shah said, "As per the contract, the beach has been divided into two parts – first one which is extremely dirty has been assigned only eight people and no machines, while the second portion has 10 workers and a tractor trolley in a terrible state."
Terming the existing Versova beach cleaning contract by BMC as "woefully inadequate" and "contractor- friendly", members of the Versova Residents Volunteers (VRV) have written to the civic body, seeking either termination of the existing contract or a new tender with additional stringent clauses.
VRV initiated a citizen-led beach clean-up movement along with the help of BMC nearly nine months ago and cleared over six lakh kg of garbage. The group alleged that the reason behind the pitiable condition of the beach was the manner in which the tender requirements of a contract were drafted, as they were not in tune with the ground realities.
Tendering flaws
Versova resident and Bombay High Court lawyer Afroz Shah, who played a key role in forming VRV, said he studied the tender documents extending from 2014 to 2021 and found that several requirements were extremely diluted. Also, key recommendations including forming a beach monitoring committee were never implemented.
"As per the cleaning contract, the Versova beach is divided into two parts – first is from Versova extension to Versova jetty, an extremely dirty 1.5 km stretch that has been assigned only eight people and no machines. The second portion is between Versova extension and Sagar Kutir, for which 10 workers and a tractor trolley in a terrible state have been allotted," said Shah. "How can such a dirty beach be cleaned efficiently with a few people and without any machinery or supervision?" he rued.
Beach monitoring committee at sea
"There should have been a Versova beach monitoring committee, with BMC K/West ward officials and two citizen members. This monitoring committee was supposed to conduct regular performance monitoring," said Shah. In fact, the committee was supposed to conduct inspections at the beach and rate the work being done by the contractor on several parameters. "The tender mentions that if the committee rates the contractor less than 70 points out of the total 100 points twice, a warning has to be issued. If the contractor scores less than 75 points four times, the contract can be terminated in a week," said Shah, adding that with a non-existing committee and no supervision, the situation at beach was getting only worse.
VRV recommendations
VRV, which has prepared a nine-page memorandum for BMC after cleaning the beach for 36 weeks, has recommended a four pronged approach. Filmmaker Neerav Ghosh, who has been an active part of VRV, said, "One of the key points that we have suggested is increasing the staff and machinery. BMC should ensure that there are two JCBs, three tractor trolleys, two digger machines and 40 workers each for both contracts."
Meanwhile the citizen body, whose beach cleaning work is finding tremendous support from all across the globe including from UN Patron of Oceans Lewis Pugh, has also started conducting surveys with the help of local fishermen in Versova to not only study the area from where the plastic and other waste is entering but also to draw plans of cleaning up the plastic in the sea as well.
BMC K/West ward officials confirmed that they were studying the VRV proposal.
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 "Versova Beach clean up Abhinav P Kocharekar")
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