The Hindu             05.11.2013

‘Only half of VMC sanitary workers found on ground’

Believe it or not! Not even half of the sanitary workers are turning up for their duties in the city. The sanitation works are being carried out with only half of the force if the musters/attendance registers were to be believed.

This startling fact came to light during Municipal Commissioner Ch. Hari Kiran’s daily visits in 10 sanitary divisions in the city. The phenomenon cannot be interpolated to all sanitary divisions in the city, but the authorities began scanning musters in all the divisions.

At a time when the trade unions are up in arms against the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) proposal to trim the sanitary staff strength, the poor turnout of sanitary workers has become an enigma for the officials. The authorities are clueless as to why so many sanitary workers are absconding from their duties. They are looking at all possible reasons like lesser wages, delay in payment of salaries and distance between their residence and work place etc.

There are about 75 workers in the city who were termed long absent. The workers who have not turned up for last 2, 3, 5, 8, and 10 years were also listed out. However, there are substitutes for most of these absentees. The total number of absentees is 362, including those who died.

The VMC, however, has not engaged any substitutes after January 1, 2013. The Corporation officials are now, gathering information about the long absentees.

Mr. Hari Kiran said that they had identified two issues: sanitary workers who are not attending to their duties and signing the muster; the workers who have been absent for a long time. The VMC was trying to find out the reasons for it. The Corporation would also explore the possibility of recruiting new workers as the sanitation would get badly hit if , he said.

It may be recalled that cash-strapped VMC has been planning to downsize the strength of its sanitary staff ever since the minimum wages were revised. The minimum wages were increased to Rs.3,900 per month in 2009 from Rs.2,100 in 2008. Then, the salary bill was to the tune of Rs.7 crore a year and revision took it to Rs.24 crore per annum.

With yet another hike in salary, Rs.6,700 per month, the VMC is shelling out around Rs.28 crore. The VMC wanted to reduce the strength by at least 1,000 workers. As many as 3,226 people are working on contract basis for carrying out sanitation works in the city. Barring permanent workers (about 1,000) the sanitary workers in the VMC are drawn from DWCUA and CMEY groups.