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.