The Hindu 07.05.2013
SDMC to appoint sanitation workers on contract basis
After a blame game between the councillors of the ruling
BJP and the opposition Congress during the meeting of the South Delhi
Municipal Corporation, Mayor Sarita Chaudhary has directed the
Commissioner to appoint sanitation workers on contract basis in all the
wards.
The decision was part of the corporation’s
strategy to deal with the problem of water-logging during the monsoon
season, which is expected in a month. Asking the officials that the
action plan to clean the drains should be prepared urgently, the Mayor
also directed the Commissioner to appoint sanitation workers for
unauthorised colonies in 15 days.
“The SDMC should
coordinate with related agencies like the Public Works Department and
the Delhi Jal Board and conduct weekly review meeting with the agencies
concerned to ensure better cleaning of drains. We expect the review
meeting report in the next meeting of House,” she said while directing
the civic officials.
During the House meeting of the
SDMC, several councillors highlighted the absence of sufficient number
of sanitation workers. As per the civic body officials, the SDMC has 266
drains with width/depth of more than 4 feet and also has over 766 km of
drains with less than 4 feet of depth. At present there are just 672
sanitation workers to clean these drains.
During the
meeting, Central Zone chairman Virender Kasana of the Congress blamed
the corporation for not doing enough to ensure that the drains get
cleaned.
While talking to the media after the House
meeting, he said: “The PWD has been cleaning the big drains since last
April. The problem lies with the corporation which has not been
cooperating with it. The BJP-ruled municipal corporation did not allow
the PWD contractor to dispose of the
malba
at approved MCD dumping grounds.”
However, Mr.
Kasana’s claim was denied by Commissioner SDMC Manish Gupta and Leader
of the House Subhash Arya. “The corporation has provided landfill sites
to PWD and has asked the department officials to make use of that. It
would be wrong to say that we are not cooperating with them,” said Mr.
Gupta.
