Shortage of conservancy workers hits garbage collection across Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Door-to-door collection of garbage and cleaning of city roads have been hit as the municipal corporation is yet to fill vacancies of conservancy workers.
After 136 conservancy workers retired in July, the corporation has to fill more than 750 vacancies. Of the 5,817 conservancy worker posts in the civic body, 2,514 are permanent posts and the rest on contract.

R Prabhakaran, councillor of ward 47, said that the workers are struggling due to manpower shortage. “While 45 workers are allotted in my ward, only 36 are working. They fail to collect garbage from houses regularly. Ultimately, residents are suffering due to unclean roads and delayed garbage collection,” he said.
Prabhakaran, also AIADMK floor leader in corporation council, said shortage of pushcarts and garbage trucks have worsen the situation.
V Ramamoorthy, CPM councillor of ward 12, said he raised the issue in the last council meeting and will raise it again. “I will also raise their wage issue. Almost half of their wage is eaten by contractors. We are kept in dark about the contractors,” he told TOI.
The situation has taken a toll on cleanliness in the city, agreed a DMK councillor in the north zone.
Councillors urged the civic body to fill the permanent posts by giving priority to workers who have served for long. The number of permanent posts should not be relinquished for any reason, they said.
The corporation has escalated the issue for immediate solution, a senior official said. “The mayor spoke to municipal administration minister K N Nehru during his recent visit, and he assured to approve new appointments within a month,” he said.