VIJAYAWADA: Member of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, Jagadish Hirmani, has asked the officials concerned to improvise on necessary steps in providing salaries to the sanitation staff according to the Labour Wage Act.
Hirmani toured the city on Tuesday and conducted a review meeting with the district officials at the sub-collector’s office here and discussed the various initiatives taken for the welfare of sanitation workers.
Speaking on the occasion, Hirmani instructed the officials to accord top priority to conducting health camps and check-ups for the sanitation staff who relentlessly work toward maintaining sanitation across the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the State.
Observing women sanitation workers working without hand gloves or identity cards at Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS), Hirmani ordered the APSRTC officials to provide essential safety gears for them immediately and submit a detailed report on it in ten days to the commission. If they fail to do so, officials and the contractor will be booked by police, he said.
Jagadish lauded sanitation workers’ contribution in the swachh ranking of Vijayawada, and its ‘Cleanest City in the country’ tag under above one million population. Officials should also focus on allotting houses or house plots to the sanitation workers through State or Central schemes, and education and business loans to dependents of the workers, he said.
Observing that there were only a few takers for the loans offered by National Safai Karamchari Finance and Development Corporation, he asked officials to hold an awareness session for the Safai Karamcharis.