Margao safai workers likely to protest poor quality brooms

MARGAO: Margao municipal safai workers, who claimed that the brooms given to them are of poor quality and, so there is a difficult in carrying out the sweeping work with such brooms, are likely to protest on Friday by not sweeping the streets in the town.

There are 30 safai workers, mostly women, who sweep the municipal areas.

MMC requires around 40 brooms per month to maintain the town clean.

“We had complained to the storekeeper about the quality of brooms.  We cannot sweep properly using these brooms. The broom sticks are loose and keep falling off while sweeping. We have brought this to the notice of sanitary inspector,” said a middle-aged safai worker.

Sources at the MMC revealed that the civic body procures the brooms from the Goa Handicrafts Rural & Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Ltd, and that in a lot, 100 plus brooms are purchased.  One  broom is supposed to last for a month.

Sanitary inspector Viraj Arabekar said, “We had purchased the brooms from the open market  last month by paying Rs 9,000, that too after the workers complained that they cannot sweep properly with the brooms provided to them. I cannot keep buying brooms from outside when the civic body has an agreement with the Goa handicrafts corporation.”

Arabekar said the matter will be placed before the chief officer Johnson Fernandes.

However, a MMC source claimed that sometimes safai workers take home the new brooms and use the old ones.

When contacted, the concerned official of the handicrafts corporation said that the purchaser should check the stock before it is taken.

“We have received a complaint from the MMC, but  presently, we have only one supplier. We supply brooms at reasonable rate – one broom costing Rs 90 to Rs 100,” the official said.