40% sanitation workers absent during surprise inspection by senior MCG officials

Nearly 40% of the sanitation workers were missing during surprise inspections carried out by senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) across the city on late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, said officials in the know of the matter.

The inspections were carried out a week after Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar inspected the sanitation operations of the MCG on January 31 and directed officials to improve the services and ensure workers were present at their designated sites.The inspections carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday were led by MCG additional commissioner Vaishali Sharma and joint commissioner Vijaypal Yadav.

Sharma and Yadav inspected the on-site operations of road sweeping machines on Tuesday night. The additional commissioner also took stock of the sanitation control room located at MCG’s Sector-34 office. On Wednesday morning, both the officials inspected the attendance marking points across the city.According to civic officials, only nine of the 18 sanitation workers were found present during the inspection at the attendance point at Hero Honda Chowk on Wednesday.

Similarly, 17of the total 23 sanitation workers were present at the attendance points in Sectors 4 and 7. At sectors 33 and 34, nine out of 20 sanitation workers were absent. Overall, 24 out of61 workers were missing from the attendance spots. All of them are contractual sanitation workers, said officials.An attendance marking point is a designated site in each of the 35 municipal wards where an MCG supervisor and a representative of the contractor manually take attendance of sanitation workers and fill the details in registers.

“We are in the process of issuing orders to the agencies concerned asking them to ensure that maximum attendance is maintained and record of workers, who are on leave or designated at different sites for official work, is maintained. Action against contractual workers and agencies will be taken as per rules,” said Yadav.The two senior MCG officials inspected road sweeping machines operating at Hero Honda Chowk-Subhash Chowk route, Golf Course Extension Road, Bakhtawar Chowk, Gurudwara Road, Old Delhi Gurgaon Road, and surrounding sites.

Civic officials said after the inspections, the seven sanitation squads constituted for monitoring bulk waste generators, waste collection points, and illegal dumping of garbage were given the additional charge of monitoring the operations of at least two mechanised sweeping machines every day. They will also have to submit a report daily.The MCG has now also changed the timetable for the operation of the mechanised sweeping machines. Earlier, the MCG used to prepare a weekly schedule stating just the general areas where the machines had to operate. Now, the municipal corporation prepares the schedule for two months at a time, stating the exact stretches and routes on which the machines have to operate on a day-to-day basis.

For example, earlier a mechanised sweeping machine was directed to operate at Bakhtawar Chowk. Now, the machine has specific directions to operate on Netaji Subhash Marg and CH Bakhtawar Singh Road.
There are 13 mechanised sweeping machines , which operate on an eight-hour slot between 10pm and 6am daily . “Such surprise inspections will continue to take place to ensure effective discharge of duties in the sanitation wing and proper utilisation of manpower. It will also help ensure punctuality,” said Yadav.