KMC to recruit conservancy workers on urgent basis, plans night cleaning service

Kolkata: In the wake of a shortage of conservancy workers in several wards, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) intends to hire more workers to plug the deficit while it is also exploring the option of introducing a night cleaning service.

With a TMC councillor pointing out that the number of conservancy workers in wards of the KMC is below the sanctioned strength, Member Mayor-in-Council (MMiC) of the Solid Waste department Debabrata Mazumdar admitted that with the increase in workload for the Conservancy department, a shortage of workers has become apparent. He said presently workers clean the city in three shifts.

“We have to clean up several areas outside KMC jurisdiction. We are supporting some hospitals in the city with conservancy workers and even having to deploy cleaning staff at EM Bypass. We have had to recruit contractual workers to meet the workload. The number of permanent workers has reduced, especially in wards 1-100. Most of them have retired,” he said.

He added: “We had increased the number of contractual labours to 80 in wards 101-144 but over the years these wards have witnessed a population growth, thus, leading to the inadequacy in the number of conservancy workers in these wards.”

“We need to recruit more mazdoors on an urgent basis in several wards,” Mazumdar said. He, however, pointed out that the sanctioned strength determined years back is not appropriate in the present day because certain services have ceased to exist with the development of waste management systems over the years. “We are also distributing labour for the purpose of segregation of waste in the KMC wards,” he pointed out.

MMiC of Parks and Squares department Debashish Kumar pointed out that in several wards in South Kolkata, the number of commercial outlets has mushroomed. Hence, the KMC needs to start a night cleaning shift.

“In certain wards surrounding the Rashbehari area, a huge number of commercial outlets have come up, generating a massive amount of waste,” he said.

The MMiC of the SWM department said KMC is planning to start a night cleaning service. He also added that the trade licence fee from traders includes a portion of the conservancy fee.