Sanjeev K. Sharma
JAMMU, Sept 11: Acute shortage of Safai Karamcharis in Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) is badly affecting the cleanliness and sanitation task in the city amidst the unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases.
Shortage of Safai Karamcharis is leaving JMC Corporators face the public ire as many localities are not being cleaned for days together and people are fearing that this may lead to Corona spread.
Fed up with all this some of these elected public representatives of the elite urban local body have picked the spade themselves to accomplish the cleanliness task in their Wards and videos of such Corporators have also went viral on social media.
In one such viral video on facebook S. Sucha Singh, Corporator of Ward number 31 was seen in a deep drain at Bhagwati Nagar area of his Ward clearing the blockage.
“Almost negligible number of Safai Karamcharis remain present in my Ward as most of these are deputed at Shri Amarnath Yatri Niwas while the remaining perform duty at Baba Sehaj Nath Dev Sthan in Gole area of the Ward,” Sucha Singh told this reporter adding: “Because of all this the remaining Ward is suffering a neglect due to which there is cleanliness and sanitation crisis.”
On spraying of disinfectants in the Ward he said: “It was not done in my Ward even when JMC was doing it on routine basis in the city. However, in the month of March-April JMC gave 20 kg disinfectant to our Ward along with other Wards and nothing was given after that.”
Singh also said that they have purchased the disinfectant and spray machines on their own to sanitize the area and claimed that they have limited resources and can’t do more on their own as far as cleanliness and sanitization is concerned.
Similarly Surinder Singh, Corporator of Ward number 29 was also seen many times holding a spade and clearing the blocked drains in Shakti Nagar area of his Ward.
Another Corporator, Anu Bali of Ward Number 24 said JMC should make some mechanism to cater the problems arising out of the shortage of Safai Karamcharis.
“Out of 26 Safai Karamcharis in my Ward only 13-14 come daily resulting which the localities are cleaned in turn-wise manner while some localities are never cleaned for weeks together,” she claimed adding that JMC should increase the number of Safai Karamcharis for proper cleanliness and sanitization of the city.
Yudhvir Singh, Corporator of newly created Ward number 73 said, his Ward is very big in area which starts from Satwari and goes till Chatha and Bhour Camp and also includes Chak Sardaran village in Flaian Mandal.
“For such a big Ward we are having only 25 Safai Karamcharis and only one auto for door to door garbage collection,” he said adding that the only auto they have is also engaged with airport so it cuts short the garbage collection time in the Ward leaving the public to suffer.
Similar problems due to shortage of Safai Karamcharis were raised by Sobat Ali, Corporator Ward number 74, Ghar Singh Chib, Ward number 75 and other JMC Corporators.
On the other hand Civic Safai Karamchari Union leader, Sunny Khokhar has said that shortage of Safai Karamcharis is increasing workload on the existing ones due to which they are unable to give proper time to their family affairs.
He demanded that 600 vacant posts of Safai Karamcharis for which the applications have been received by the JMC and the recruitment process also has started, should be filled soon so that the present Safai Karamcharis may heave a sigh of relief and the city may also be properly cleaned and sanitized to help in controlling the spread of COVID pandemic.
When contacted Chairman Health and Sanitation Committee of JMC, Baldev Singh Baloria informed that about 3,000 Safai Karamcharis are daily performing the cleanliness and sanitization tasks in all of the 75 JMC Wards.
“Still JMC falls short of 1500 Safai Karamcharis. As per the norms one Safai Karamchari is required for a population of 250 and apart from this separate Safai Karamcharis needed needed for the commercial establishments,” he informed.
The Chairman also informed that JMC is recruiting 600 Safai Karamcharis soon for which physical tests have been done and the remaining procedure has been delayed due to COVID pandemic.
JMC Mayor, Chander Mohan Gupta when contacted informed that recruitment process for the 600 posts of Safai Karamcharis is almost complete and only practical test is pending which was delayed because of COVID pandemic and the same is expected to be cleared by the end of September this year.
“About 90 per cent of these 600 applicants are presently working with the non-government organisation (NGO) that supplies Civic Safai Karamcharis to JMC and on completion of the practical tests they will be appointed as casual Safai Karamcharis of JMC,” the Mayor informed.
On remaining deficiency of 900 Safai Karamcharis as the local body is short of nearly 1500, he said that JMC will approach the NGO again to cover that shortage.
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