The Times of India            28.11.2013 

Corporation to outsource conservancy works in 18 wards

TRICHY: The Trichy Corporation has decided to outsource the conservancy work of its 18 wards to private parties. On Wednesday, it passed a resolution during the corporation council meet to privatise the entire work due to acute shortage of workers.

The corporation has been facing shortage of workers in all the wards. The 18 wards are as follows. Chatiram Bus Stand, 8, 9; Sri Rangam wards 7, 28, 29, 61, 62, 64 and Gandhi Market; Ariyamangalam wards 35, 36, 37,38,39,63 and 65; the Central Bus Stand; Golden Rock Zone; and 40, 41 and 45 in K. Abishekpuram zone.

According to the corporation officials, conservancy works like sanitary operations and other cleaning works are already being carried out in smaller scale at locations like bus stands and markets by private operators. This would be the first large scale initiative. As part of their work, the private operators would be carrying out the solid waste management by segregating the degradable and non-degradable waste. They would also be cleaning the roads in all the wards using advanced machines and would also ensure that there is a constant flow in the storm water drains.

Though the move was in consideration for quite some time, it was finally passed on Wednesday after facing some hurdles from certain ward members. Three ward councillors belonging to the DMK and Congress opposed the move stating that privatisation will not help in making the locality better. They said that similar measures taken in the past have failed in a big way. One such example is the Central Bus Stand, they pointed out.

One of the congress councillors Hema, whose ward will soon be privatized, said that the officers belonging to the private agencies do not heed to the words of the councillors in cleaning works.

However, corporation authorities said that rise in population, shortage of conservancy workers and limitations in hiring, and expansion of the corporation limits has increased the need to rope in private parties. According to the new policy, the private agency would be cleaning nearly 21 km (bus route) and the garbage would be transported to the dumping grounds with the help of their workers.

The Hindu             27.11.2013

Municipal staff confiscating pigs face stiff resistance

A.V. Ragunathan

At Vannarapalayam rearers threaten them with spears, knives

The Cuddalore municipal employees, who went about removing pigs from certain areas in the town not only faced resentment but also stiff resistance from those rearing the animals on Tuesday.

The employees caught as many as 28 pigs from areas such as K.K. Nagar, Pudupalayam and Vannarapalayam. But those rearing pigs at Vannarapalayam challenged the civic employees when the later were about to take away the pigs.

Armed with spears and knives they surrounded the employees and refused to let them go.

Suddenly certain persons from the crowd caught hold of two pigs, slaughtered the animals and threw the meat on the road to voice their protest.

Taken aback by such brazen act the civic employees withdrew from the scene and lodged a complaint with the Thevanampattinam police.

Health hazard

When contacted, Municipal Commissioner P. Kalimuthu told The Hindu that following a spate of complaints received by District Collector R. Kirlosh Kumar about the pig menace and the health hazards posed by them, such as brain fever, periodic efforts were being taken to remove the pigs out of the town boundary.

Municipal Health Officer Kumaragurubaran said that since pigs abound in the town, and given their speedy proliferation, raids were being carried out in those areas on a monthly basis. For the purpose of catching the pigs the municipality had engaged trained catchers from Thanjavur. Those pigs caught by them would be taken to Vedaranyam and let into the forest areas. But today the staff unexpectedly came across a violent response from those rearing the pigs.

They were strictly told that if the animals were kept in the sty there would not be any problem, but if the pigs started roaming in the streets they would be caught.

Street dog menace

As for the street dog menace, Dr. Kumaragurubaran said that on an average the civic body was sterilising 5—8 dogs a day. After 45 days of sterilisation the dogs would lose their ferocity and therefore would not pose any threat to the people.

The civic body seems to be toying with the idea of capturing the street dogs and freeing them in far away jungles.