KMC to hire conservancy staff past retirement age for 100 days work

kolkata: In a bid to ensure that conservancy workers who have reached or passed their retirement age are not deprived of their livelihood, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to engage such workers under the 100 days work scheme.

The decision was announced following a query raised by one of the councillors, Nandita Ray. She pointed out that when segregation of waste was first started in 2010 in seven wards of the KMC, the conservancy workers who were then recruited for the purpose continued to work for the next 13 years (2023) in return for a meagre amount as wage. Among them, many have crossed 40. It is learnt that the civic body has all of a sudden decided in March not to keep these workers in the job any more, the councillor said.Commenting on the matter, the Member Mayor-in-Council (MMIC) of the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department, Debabrata Mazumder assured that not a single worker will lose their livelihood. Explaining the situation, he said these workers were recruited in 2010 during the Left Front regime but at that time no one gave a thought to their well-being, he stated.

“Under the incumbent state government led by Mamata Banerjee, we decided to bring all the conservancy workers under social security schemes,” he said. “Earlier, only permanent workers were eligible for benefits such as ESI, PF and pension but later on we included the contractual workers. However, the problem that has surfaced is there are certain rules which cannot be broken. This includes we cannot keep workers beyond the age of 40 (45 in case of SC/ST),” he pointed out. In a bid to ensure that rules are not violated and yet these conservancy workers get to earn their livelihood, the SWM department has already discussed the matter with Mayor Firhad Hakim suggesting that these workers in the seven wards concerned be engaged under the 100-day work scheme, the MMIC said.

Mazumdar added: “Although KMC intends to ensure no worker loses their livelihood, we also have to see that workers are not paid without doing any job. Several workers in these seven wards live outside Kolkata and cannot turn up for work every day. We are asking the councillors to identify the ones who are available and can work. We will accordingly recruit them in 100 days work scheme.”