MC is continuing its work, despite curfew: KP Brar

TNN | Apr 13, 2020, 07:12 IST

Ludhiana: The extension in the lockdown period up to April-end in order to check the movement of people outside in the wake of coronavirus spreading is likely to bring some problems for the civic body in managing things in the city.
They have started preparation for cleaning of Buddha Nullah, and the sewerage system as per their schedule, because if they do not start now, there will be a problem in the rainy season. Apart from this, the civic body is facing criticism on certain issues. Here are a few excerpts from an interaction with MC commissioner KP Brar.
As the lockdown period has increased, has MC planned for certain services to resume?
The lockdown period was expected to increase, and most of us were prepared for it, so we had already made plans. First of all, we have started cleaning Buddha Nullah at our level, and the drainage department has been asked to send estimates for cleaning with polkline machines, which we do before every rainy season.
We have also started clearing the construction and demolition waste from roadsides, so that roads become clean. The cleaning of road gulleys will also start, and sewage cleaning is going on side by side. We have to do this, because the rainy season will also start, and if we do not do things on time, then we will not be able to handle things. Our entire staff has been deputed on duties so that people remain safe.
Your sanitisation staff has refused to lift masks and gloves from infected houses. Will the company dealing with bio-medical waste be able to do it?
It is not that our staff refused to lift the waste, but I feel company people are more trained for this job, as they have been lifting bio-medical waste from hospitals. We have arranged everything, and not many infected houses are there in the city, so it would not be a major problem. The residents have been given yellow bags for throwing used masks and gloves, and when bags are filled, the company vehicle will visit areas and collect waste.
These days, many people are using surgical masks and gloves as preventive measures, but what about disposal, as these things are coming in routine garbage being collected from households?
As most of the houses are not infected, their masks and gloves too are not infected, but we cannot be sure about it. So, I have directed chief sanitary inspectors to convince residents to kindly keep their masks and gloves separate from other garbage, and when garbage collectors collect the garbage, they too will keep it separate, so that disposal can also take place separately. People should avoid using surgical masks, and instead, they should get cloth masks if they do not have any health issues, as cloth masks are washable, and can be used again.
The civic body is doing sanitisation in wards and roads, but in some of the areas, residents complained that nobody came for sanitisation. Why?
We have started the third phase of sanitisation in the city. At the moment, half the staff — including the fire brigade — is deputed in this task. Earlier, there were complaints from people that sanitisation was not being done, and that was because we were doing sanitisation at night time, while people were sleeping, but when people started blaming, we decided to do sanitisation during the day.
The councillors are also getting sanitisation done in the streets, and this medicine is effective in killing germs. Now, in the third round, days are fixed wardwise, and councillors are also provided the list, so everything is being done in a transparent manner. Even then, if people want to blame, I cannot do anything about it.
The residents have shown concern that ration and langar distribution should be streamlined, or even stopped to curb the movement of people on the roads. What do you feel?
Though this decision has to be taken by the administration, many things have now been streamlined to a great extent. Moreover, NGOs have also started feeling exhausted now, because for how long will they be able to provide food or ration? There is an open option for poor people to get shifted to Dera Beas centres in the city, as they have arranged food and space for such people. But people do not want to go there. They will get food there, and space to stay without any problem.