THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city corporation is in deep crisis over shortage of cleaning and waste collecting staff which has led to huge accumulation of garbage in many parts of the city. As per statistics available with the corporation, the civic body is short of 165 workers, most of them sanitation workers. The corporation has a total sanctioned staff strength of 960, including drivers. Though the corporation has conducted interviews to fill vacant posts by selecting them through employment exchange, the stay order secured by temporary staff from the High Court poses a hurdle in appointing the permanent staff.
According to Binu Francis, corporation secretary, no fresh appointments were made in the last six months due to the stay order secured by the temporary staff. “We have selected many through employment exchange and conducted interviews as well. But the temporary employees approached the High Court and secured the stay order as they feared that they would lose their jobs. There is severe staff shortage and this has affected waste removal from many parts of the city. At present, we have only 795 workers. Of these, 300 are temporary workers,” he said.
However, the decision to vacate the stay and appoint more staff can only be made in a corporation council meeting with the approval of majority of councillors. Seizure of waste-collecting trucks continues Meanwhile, private waste collection agencies working for the corporation are at the receiving end as the civic body is imposing penalty on vehicles citing that they do not have the necessary approval from the corporation. “The issue of waste collection still persists. Even on Wednesday, one of our vehicles was seized at Ulloor. So we staged a protest in front of the Ulloor health circle office. We will continue protests till the issue is resolved,” said Ajith Baby, a truck owner who used to collect waste.
Recently, the state government had assigned the Haritha Kerala Mission to remove garbage accumulated in the city. It has initiated steps to form Haritha Karma Sena in all hundred wards for effective source-level waste management and door-to-door collection of non-biodegradable waste.
Waste menace
441 aerobic bins installed at 62 locations in different parts of the city. Unfortunately, many of them are lying defunct owing to lack of maintenance.
The city generates an average of 353 tonnes of waste daily.
Corporation secretary had issued a notice to health authorities to clear the waste by February 14 following repeated complaints, but to no avail.