Delhi government planning to hand over management of public toilets to 'banned' company, alleges Congress

Congress leaders met Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Tuesday alleging that the Delhi government is planning to hand over management of public toilets in the city to a "banned" company replacing NGOs. A delegation of the party leaders headed by Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar claimed corruption in the "plan" of the Delhi government to hand over the toilets to a company by removing non-profit groups from their management.

The delegation submitted a memorandum to the LG and sought a probe into the Delhi government's "plan of handing over a contract to a company" for the installation of western facilities in public convenience complexes, said a Delhi Congress statement.

Speaking to reporters, the Delhi Congress chief alleged that Urban Development Minister Manish Sisodia has "planned to award" the construction and maintenance of toilet complexes "to a company debarred by him".


"On August 18, a decision was taken to give a contract to a debarred company for the construction of 18,620 toilets in 559 public convenience complexes. The Delhi government went to GeM portal, instead of the traditional eProcurement website to float the tender, and straight away offered the contract to a debarred company," Kumar said.

Kumar further alleged that Sisodia himself had "debarred" the company in "2021 for two years" for "their poor performance", and that, the high court "did not give any clean chit" to the said company for their poor record in its order on June 8 as well.

"When the GeM portal tender conditions had specified that a company with a bad performance track record cannot participate in the tender bid, how was that particular company allowed to participate in the tender bid?" he asked.

Sources at the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) have said that the plan to hand over the contract to one company for construction of toilets in public convenience complexes has been taken due to "mismanagement by multiple NGOs".

There was no immediate reaction from Delhi government officials on the allegations.