VIJAYAWADA: A day after ruling TDP corporators complained about poor sanitation plaguing 59 divisions in the city during the council meeting held on Friday, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) started gathering information about the long-time absentees and elderly sanitation workers.
The corporation had been spending around `110 crore per annum for the maintenance of sanitation across the city. As many as 2,900 CMYE and 677 public health workers at present exercising their duties in the corporation. Several sanitation staff working in the corporation were aged between 25-45. Around 150 sanitation staff were aged above 55 years and were not able to perform the duties like collecting garbage and cleaning the roads effectively.
The VMC officials explored all possibilities to initiate a drive to identify sanitation staff aged above 55 years and give the employment opportunity to one of their family members. Several corporators also complained that not even half of the sanitary workers turned up for their duties in the city. The sanitation works were being carried out with only half of the force in major divisions. This startling fact came to light during the daily visit by city mayor Koneru Sreedhar.
Municipal Corporation Employees Union State leader M David said, as many as 230 sanitation workers were not attending to their duties due to various health problems. Nearly 70 workers died in the last three years. Several representations were submitted to city mayor Koneru Sreedhar and municipal commissioner G Veerapandian over providing employment for the kin of sanitation workers who died while performing their duties. “How can we trust the statements of mayor in this issue. First he should provide employment for the kin of sanitation staff and remove the workers who are aged above 55 years”, David said. Senior TDP corporator Jasti Sambasiva Rao underlined the need for equipping modern technologies on the lines of Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, to improve sanitation facilities across the city, as it was being developed as part of State capital Amaravati. At least two sanitation workers should be deployed in each division to maintain proper sanitation and hygiene. Special machines should be equipped by the corporation to clean the silt in the open drains and manholes across the city to avoid deaths of sanitation workers, he said.
Speaking to Express, chief medical and health officer of VMC, Dr M Gopi Naik said that corporation had decided to identify the long-time absentees among sanitation workers. A survey would begin to list out the sanitary workers, who have not been turning up for duties for more than two years.
According to a rough estimate of the officials, there were 120 workers in this category. There were about 150 workers in the city who were termed ‘long absent.’ The workers, who have not been turning up for the last two, three, five, eight, and even 10 years, were yet to be listed out.