The Pune Municipal Corporation has fined six contractors for poor sweeping work across the city and recovered about Rs 6.25 lakh in penalties, as it steps up inspections of outsourced civic services under a three-month performance-based pilot project.
The civic body said the action had improved the quality of sweeping work by around 50%. It has also begun imposing a penalty of Rs 1,000 for each worker found negligent while carrying out sweeping duties. The measures follow inspections in which garbage was found at locations where sweeping work had already been completed.
Sweeping operations in different parts of Pune have been assigned to separate contractors through the respective ward offices. PMC officials are conducting spot checks to assess whether the work is being carried out according to prescribed requirements. Additional Municipal Commissioner Prajit Nair has inspected several areas and said surprise inspections would continue in the coming days.
The contractors issued notices include Priyank Enterprises Prime Avenue, Sumit Facilities Ltd, Siddhivinayak Enterprises and Global Waste Management Cell Pvt Ltd, among others. The PMC did not provide a ward-wise breakdown of the total penalties recovered in the report, but identified two specific actions under the pilot.
Under the Bibwewadi ward office, L.V.G. Facilities India Pvt Ltd was fined Rs 2.75 lakh after the quality of its work remained below expectations even two months after the project began. In the Kothrud-Bavdhan ward office area, Lokrajya Self-Employment Services Cooperative Society was fined Rs 20,000.
Santosh Varule, deputy commissioner in the PMC’s solid waste management department, said the civic body had earlier relied largely on notices against contractors. “Earlier, contractors were mostly issued notices. One company was fined Rs 5,000. We have now started imposing a penalty of Rs 1,000 per worker. This has resulted in around 50% improvement in the work,” he said.
The enforcement mechanism places responsibility on contractors operating through ward offices while giving PMC officials a direct role in checking service quality on the ground. The approach also links payment-related accountability to the condition of public streets after sweeping work, rather than relying only on notices.
The three-month project is currently being implemented on a pilot basis. PMC officials are expected to continue spot and surprise inspections during the pilot period, with contractor performance remaining the basis for further action.
