NEW DELHI: L-G V K Saxena has approved the Delhi government’s proposal to nominate district magistrates (DM) as the Responsible Sanitation Authority (RSA) in their jurisdiction and establish Emergency Response Sanitation Units to ensure elimination of manual cleaning of sewers, Raj Niwas officials said on Thursday. The proposal was submitted to the L-G by the government after a delay of almost three years, officials added.
To effectively address the menace of manual scavenging and the needs of one of the most marginalised sections of society, a Group of Ministers set up by the Centre in February 2020, had decided that DMs in every district should be designated as the RSA.
Their role and responsibility was clearly defined as per the provisions of ‘The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation (PEMSR) Act, 2013’. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, in 2022, informed that the Delhi government was bound by directives, the official said.
It was also informed that the Delhi Jal Board can provide its dedicated holding of each type of manpower and machinery earmarked or prioritised for working for this purpose in the territorial jurisdiction of each district, the official said.
The file remained pending for more than a year and a request was made to Saurabh Bhardwaj, who now holds the urban development portfolio, in September last year to expedite the matter. The proposal was cleared by Bharadwaj on January 19 and sent to the Chief Minister before forwarding to the L-G..
‘Delay of 3 years’
The proposal was submitted to the L-G by the government after a delay of almost three years, officials added. “The proposal of the Delhi government’s urban development department was received at the L-G in the last week of January. This happened despite the fact that the Centre and the prime minister himself reviewed the progress made on the issue on June 2, 2022,” an official said.