Tiruchi Corporation plans to increase strength of conservancy workers

TIRUCHI

As garbage collection and disposal mechanism continues to pose challenges, the Tiruchi Corporation plans to recruit more sanitary workers.

According to sources, the current strength of the workers, who have been engaged in day to to day work of clearing waste from streets and public places and transporting the daily collection of garbage to the micro compost yards and the dumpyard at Ariyamangalam hovers around 2,600. Of them, there are about 1,200 permanent workers. The number of Self Help Group (SHG) members, who have been engaged in sanitary works, stands at 1,380.

The city generates about 470 metric tonnes of solid waste daily. But, it is said that the existing strength of workers is highly inadequate to handle the garbage collection and disposal. According to the yardsticks fixed by the Department of Municipal Administration for employing conservancy workers in urban local bodies in 1997, three workers can be engaged for every 250 households. The number is four for loading and transporting in lorries and three in mini lorries. Almost 25 years have gone since the GO was issued. But the same yardsticks were still being followed on creating posts in urban local bodies.

As per the yardsticks, the city should have at least 6,000 conservancy workers. But it has less than 50% of the requirement. The insufficient workforce does reflect in the overall solid waste management of the city. Almost all 65 wards in the city face severe problems in collection and disposal mechanisms. There are just 20 to 25 workers for each ward. They have to cover about 4,500 to 6,000 houses.

“There are just 23 workers for 4,700 households in my ward. Of them, around 15 to 16 workers turn up for duty daily. The number is highly insufficient to clean the roads, streets, lanes, bylanes and desilt drainages. They find it extremely difficult to discharge their duty. The inadequate number adds pressure to workers,” says V. Jawahar, councillor, ward-2.

No new recruitment has been made except for those appointed on compassionate grounds. With the city all set to expand with the addition of new areas, there is a strong demand for increasing the number of conservancy workers.

Mayor M. Anbazhagan told The Hindu that the city required at least 1,000 new sanitary workers. The issue had been discussed with K.N. Nehru, Minister for Municipal Administration. He had also agreed to the need for appointing new workers. Formal steps would be initiated to create new posts, he said.