The Hindu 04.01.2010
Coimbatore Corporation recruits conservancy workers on contract
Special Correspondent
| Reinforcements needed to implement civic body’s plan to keep the city clean, says Mayor |
– Photo: M. Periasamy 
Supplementary force: City Engineer G. Karunaagaran (second right) explaining work requirements to women conservancy workers recruited by the Coimbatore Corporation on a contract basis on Sunday.
COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation on Sunday recruited more than 400 workers (men and women) on a contract basis to step up conservancy operations across the city. Mayor R. Venkatachalam said this was to overcome the shortage of workers in cleaning storm water drains and removing garbage.
Totally, 419 workers and 19 supervisors have been appointed. One supervisor would be in charge of 20 workers. The Mayor said East Zone had been allocated 88 workers and five supervisors, West Zone 130 workers and six supervisors, South Zone 70 and 4 respectively and North 128 and 6 respectively.
The Mayor said the allocation had been done depending on the requirement of each zone.
Some of the zones that had newly regularised layouts needed more workers as civic amenities were gradually being provided.
Besides, some wards, such as Ward 72, were larger than many others.
Complaints
The decision to recruit workers on contract was taken and a resolution passed in the Council because councillors had been complaining of poor conservancy in their wards. Most of them often complained of blocks in the storm water drainage.
The Mayor said: “Communist Party of India member K. Purushothaman led the cleaning of a storm water drain in his ward to point out that this work was affected because of shortage of workers. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member P. Rajkumar raised the issue of clogged drains at the recent meeting of the Council. Health Committee Chairman P. Nachimuthu called for immediate steps to solve this problem.”
Last resort
The Mayor said Commissioner Anshul Mishra and other officials expedited the process of recruiting the workers as the situation in various parts of the city pointed at the dire need for reinforcements.
The contract workers would don a different uniform but supplement the efforts of the regular workers.
There were plans for garbage removal on Sunday and also at night.
While these plans would be examined by the civic body later, the new workers would be deployed in the wards on Monday.
“They will ease the workload on the regular workers who say they are not able to handle seven to eight wards a day.”
The new workers would remove blocks in the drainage in the morning. They would remove debris and shrubs along roads and drainage during the rest of the day.
