Gurugram, Manesar civic bodies to increase sanitation staff strength

The municipal corporations of Gurugram and Manesar (MCM) initiated steps towards increasing their allocation of resources for cleanliness measures, officials privy to the matter said on Sunday

The municipal corporations of Gurugram and Manesar (MCM) initiated steps towards increasing their allocation of resources for cleanliness measures, officials privy to the matter said on Sunday.

A Japanese spray machine that can disinfect areas up to 20,000 sq mtrs an hour is seen during a sanitation drive in South city-II Block-D, near Nirvana Country, in Gurugram in this file picture from 2020. ( Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

The newly-formed Municipal Corporation of Manesar (MCM) increased the sanitation workers’ strength from 69 to 269, while the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has decided to hire more agencies for employing contractual workers.

The MCG directed senior sanitation staff members deployed in its four zones to prepare a list of sanitation workers needed for comprehensive coverage.

Currently, there are 2,500 sanitation workers in Gurugram, managed by four agencies in each of MCG’s four zones. The MCG has now decided to increase the total number of agencies to 10 and increase the total number of sanitation workers to around 6,000.

“Tenders for hiring new agencies for sanitation purposes have been floated by the MCG. We will be adding around 3,300 more sanitation workers. In each MCG zone, there will be workers deployed from at least two agencies while for newer sectors, we are planning on keeping two separate agencies for the task,” said a senior MCG official privy to the matter.

MCG officials said that the move was necessitated due to an increase in its jurisdiction as well as the city expanding over the past five years.

Sanitation workers primarily clean roads, green belts, either through manual or mechanical sweeping, and pick up trash from and dump it in municipal tractors for further disposal.

The reasons for increasing sanitation workers in MCM, however, are entirely different. The MCM was established by the Haryana government in December last year and in the initial three months of operations, it had only 69 sanitation workers.

Before the MCM’s formation, the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) primarily looked after cleanliness measures in urban areas and gram panchayats in villages. Following MCM’s formation, the panchayat system was immediately abolished while the HSIIDC ceased several operations, including cleaning of urban areas in Manesar.

“The number of sanitation workers has been increased to improve the sanitation system in MCM area. Senior sanitary inspectors concerned and sanitary inspectors were instructed to lift the garbage in the municipal areas and ensure the appointment of cleaning staff as per requirement. Work is being done, keeping cleanliness on priority, and wherever there is garbage, it is being lifted and the main roads are being cleaned with sweeping machines,” said Hariom Attri, joint commissioner, MCM.

Attri said that the MCM is also carrying out a survey to determine the exact number of sanitation workers needed for providing comprehensive coverage across Manesar and subsequently, it may hire more workers on a contractual basis, if required.