The Vellore Corporation is all set to privatise the garbage disposal system in the city.

Lack
of sufficient sanitary workers had severely affected the garbage
disposal in the city  triggering protests and agitations from the
public, demanding that public areas be cleaned regularly. In response to
these protests, the  Corporation had involved women from the self-help
groups on contract basis, who are  involved in door-to-door collection
of wastes and drainage cleaning works.

Meanwhile, the Corporation
had approached the Directorate of Municipal Administration seeking
permission to involve more workers on contract basis and got the nod to
recruit 715 private sanitary workers, to address the garbage issues.
Wages, Employee Provident Fund, service tax, LIC and other benefits to
these workers worked up to around `59.76 lakh per month and `7.17 crore
per year.

A resolution to pay wages to these workers from the
general fund of the Corporation was passed at the recently held council
meeting amidst objections from local councillors. However Mayor P
Karthiyayini had passed the resolution after assuring that the contract
would be cancelled, if the system was found to be ineffective.

A
study by the Corporation revealed that it required 1,450 sanitary
workers to the local body had only 559 workers. The local body had
involved 46  self-help groups, each providing 10 members, on contract
basis.While the number of permanent sanitary workers required was 891,
the Directorate informed the Corporation to recruit 715 workers,
inclusive of the current 460 workers from the self-helf group.

Corporation
Commissioner P Janaki Raveendran said tenders would be floated and the
contract would be entered for a year.  Bins and garbage carrying
vehicles would be provided by the Corporation to new workers and they
would be involved in the door-to-door collection of wastes, road
cleaning and the drainage cleaning works.