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Daily 20% sanitation workers remain absent, cleanliness work affected
From December 2023, the PMC solid waste management department has deployed ISWMS to track sanitation employees and promote cleanliness within the city limits
After implementing the Intelligent Solid Waste Management System (ISWMS) to monitor waste collection, transportation, and sanitation work at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), it was discovered that almost 20% of staff are absent each day, adversely affecting cleanliness tasks.
From December 2023, the PMC solid waste management department has deployed ISWMS to track sanitation employees and promote cleanliness within the city limits. PMC has put up a system in the Local Body Tax (LBT) office to monitor staff attendance throughout the city, with an investment of ₹17 crore to set up the system.
After discovering that around 30 to 35 employees in each ward office were getting paid without doing any work, PMC’s solid waste department introduced ISWMS. They provided devices to 10,000 sanitation workers and equipped 700 waste transport vehicles with radio frequency identification tags and GPS systems.
The municipal corporation has both permanent and temporary employees such as sweepers and cleaners, working under various Zonal offices. Supervisors are appointed for every 15 to 20 employees.
Kunal Khemnar, additional municipal commissioner of PMC said, “Under ISWMS, we receive ward-wise attendance data of sanitation workers. It has revealed that around 20 per cent of workers are absent daily which hampers cleanliness work in many areas.”
He further said, “Based on the daily review, we have decided to link salary to ISWMS to stop manual interference in attendance. Last week, we conducted a meeting of all ward officers, sanitation inspectors (SI), and deputy sanitation inspectors and instructed them to improve cleanliness in their respective areas. With IWMS, we are analysing manpower requirements for effective cleanliness work in different parts of the city.”
One of the officials of the solid waste management department said, “Opposition from trade unions persists, with some employees attempting to sabotage the ISWMS devices. Despite this, the system has been effective in curbing malpractices.”
Sandeep Kadam, head of the solid waste management department of PMC said, “ISWMS is eliminating the difficulty of registration of attendance of solid waste department. Also, it is helping to make the work of the solid waste management department easier. Due to this system, we are controlling malpractices.”
