Tiruchy civic body may privatise solid waste management

The Tiruchy city corporation is considering the privatisation of its solid waste management to improve efficiency, a move that is currently in the proposal stage. Mayor Mu Anbalagan said there are several factors that pushed the corporation to consider privatisation. For instance, councillors during several council meetings claimed there were not enough sanitation workers to maintain hygiene in their localities. This is despite the fact that, as officials pointed out, the civic body has 2,500 sanitation workers, with about 40 sanitation workers for each ward. A few councillors, however, said the ground reality was different. There are about 4,000 families in my ward and it is also an area close to Gandhi Market. Therefore, we need a minimum of 40 sanitation workers. But we have only 22 sanitation workers. The existing workforce has to hence take extra effort to ensure cleanliness, said one councillor. Others, too, claimed to be facing a similar situation in their wards. Officials admitted that a few wards did not have the required number of sanitation workers and some of these were not even regular at their work. Though efforts are on to improve the efficiency of the solid management system, the corporation is also considering a plan to hand over the responsibility to private parties. The corporation would monitor their performance, and if it was below par, their contract could be cancelled. See also: PMC to rope in private agency to help keep city cleanGujarat spends Rs 1k cr for river cleaning