Mayor claims sweepers drawing ‘bogus salary’ despite GPS watchdog

Nagpur: Many Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) sanitary workers continue to draw ‘bogus salaries’ despite being covered under GPS-enabled wrist watch mechanism, said mayor Nanda Jichkar. She has directed action against the workers as well as officials of the health department.
Jichkar held review meeting with zonal chairpersons, NMC office bearers and officials on Saturday at the NMC head office. On the issue of city’s cleanliness, Jichkar said, “GPS watches were given to sanitary workers for monitoring, and ensuring cleanliness across the city. Still, complaints are being received that many sanitary workers do not perform their task. Permanent as well as daily wage sanitary workers draw salary from NMC but work for private agencies. Action will also be taken against the officials who protect these workers,” she said.

Jichkar added monitoring of sanitary workers should be done properly through GPS mechanism. “Diwali festival is beginning. We need to keep the city clean,” she said.

NMC had launched the GPS-enabled wrist watches in April this year. The watches were distributed to 8,000 workers. The civic body is paying monthly rent of Rs207 per watch to a private agency to operate and maintain the system for eight years.

Earlier, TOI had exposed four cases where sanitary workers were working with private agencies and at the same time drawing salary from NMC by only registering attendance. Some workers were also suspended.

Union leader Kishor Samundre condemned the mayor’s statement. “Sanitary workers are doing proper work and results can be seen if one roams the city. NMC office bearers claim to have received awards for sanitation, but accuse the workers of fraud. Such attitude is totally wrong. The office bearers should stop levelling such allegations against workers who work on the roads risking their lives daily,” he said.