Urban News

The Hindu 06.01.2010

Conservancy workers to get uniforms, protective gear

Special Correspondent

Photo: M. Periasamy

Mayor R. Venkatachalam (third left) distributing uniforms to conservancy workers of the Coimbatore Corporation on Tuesday. –

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation will provide protective gear such as gloves, gum boots and masks to all workers who remove garbage and clean the drainage across the city. This is to ensure that the workers do not contract any infection as they are bound to handle hazardous waste.

Mayor R. Venkatachalam and Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra gave away on Tuesday uniforms to conservancy workers and the protective gear to drainage workers.

Assistant City Health Officer R. Sumathi said the uniforms had been procured for 2,187 conservancy workers. By the end of this week they would be provided with masks, gloves and gum boots also. On Tuesday, 30 drainage workers were provided with the protective gear. The others would get these later.

“I found one of the workers using bare hands to clean the drainage. The workers have to wear protective gear to ward off infection. I asked the worker to demand the gear to carry out the work,” the Commissioner said.

Dr. Sumathi said the Commissioner had instructed that the workers should put on footwear during conservancy work. “Hookworm infection and the resultant anaemia are common among the workers. They are exposed to the risk of infection when they get into the drainage for cleaning or while dealing with sewage overflow on roads,” Dr. Sumathi explained.

If workers did not wear gloves while removing garbage, they ran the risk of getting dermatitis. Though bio-medical waste was now taken to a common disposal facility, non-medical needles could be mixed in garbage. This problem could continue till segregation of waste was total across the city.

Dr. Sumathi said the workers should wear masks as inhalation of gases in waste dumps or drainage could cause serious problems.

Asked whether the Corporation would ensure that workers would use the protective gear, the health official said the civic body had found during its monitoring in nine model wards that the workers wore the masks, boots and gloves while at work.

Quality

On why workers were not wearing these regularly earlier, she said there were problems relating to quality and size of gloves. This was why the workers had not worn these. Now, the Corporation had bought gloves of five different sizes.

The other problem was that all the protective gear and raincoats were procured through a single tender system. The gloves should be replaced every three months, the boots and reflector jackets lasted for a year and raincoats for two years. Therefore, the workers had to wait for a long time to get new gloves.

Now, each gear was procured through individual tenders. This would enable replacement at the appropriate time, Dr. Sumathi said.

The Hindu 06.01.2010

Proposals for improving safety, traffic management submitted to Mayor

Staff Reporter

— Photo: M.Karunakaran

Mayor M.Subramanian inspecting a modified helmet designed by students of Anna University at ‘Chen Safe’ in Chennai on Tuesday. CMDA Member Secretary Vikram Kapur and College of Engineering, Guindy, Dean M.Sekar are in the picture.

CHENNAI: Pointing out that the explosive growth in the number of vehicles has made it extremely difficult for Chennai Corporation to keep pace by providing adequate infrastructure, Mayor M. Subramanian said that construction work on eight flyovers at various locations in the city is currently on.

“The flyover at Perambur junction will be opened for traffic by next month. Various other facilities like the provision of a lift at the Road Over-Bridge (ROB) in Nungambakkam will be inaugurated shortly,” he said.

He was speaking on Tuesday at the valedictory session of a two-day seminar on road user safety ‘Chen Safe’ jointly organised here by the College of Engineering, Guindy, and its Alumni Association.

Admitting that there is a lack of adequate infrastructure, Mr.Subramanian added that existing facilities, including ROBs, were not being utilised. “Infrastructure facilities along with proper public participation only can provide lasting solutions. Each citizen must love the city and work for its improvement instead of just leaving it to government authorities.”

As a result of the deliberations which took place at the seminar, 12 proposals for improving safety and traffic management in the city were submitted to the Mayor.

Some of these proposals were to revive traffic engineering and management cells in Chennai Corporation and in Highways Department to look into inadequate geometry of roads, giving pedestrians priority at least in areas where their movements are high, creating a traffic management school in Anna University to train in-service personnel and to relook at the methods used to issue driving licence.

Stressing that focus must be on moving people, not vehicles, Vikram Kapur, Member-Secretary, Chennai Metropolitan Development Corporation (CMDA), said “Huge investments have been repeatedly made to cater to the needs of private motorised vehicles. We must not lose sight of the fact that 30 per cent of trips everyday across the city is by non-motorised means, which includes pedestrians and cyclists.”

While infrastructure services such as flyovers and road widening schemes must go ahead, he said, more attention has to be given to measures that make more people use public transport. “Limit the amount of road space available for private vehicles,” he said. Parking fee should be increased and a tax levied on vehicles entering busy commercial districts, he added.

He said that authorities must not lose sight of pressing concerns by trying to become a city of grandeur with flyovers, Metro rails and expressways. “A city is judged by how it treats its pedestrians, the elderly, children and the disabled.”