Pune development plan lacks housing facility for sanitary workers: Safai Kamgar commission

AURANGABAD: The state Safai Kamgar Commission paid a visit to the city on Monday to review the implementation of welfare schemes meant for the sanitary workers.The commission found that the civic body has not allotted housing colonies to these workers under the city’s development plan.Chairman of the state-appointed commission, Ramuji Pawar said, “It is mandatory for the municipal authorities to spare enough land for building the housing colonies for sanitary workers. But, now the municipal authority officials have clarified that the new development plan lacks such provision.”“The non-availability of land will now pose a big hurdle for the civic body to avail any special funds from the state which are reserved for this purpose. Also, the civic body has not sent a single proposal for building households for the workers in the last three years. This reflects the approach of the civic authority,” he said.So far, the civic body has built only 35 housing blocks for over 1,600 sanitary workers engaged here.“We will bring this to the notice of the state government and seek action against those responsible for it. We will also recommend the state government to take steps and provide housing facilities to the workers,” he added.Besides Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), the committee has also visited the civic bodies in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Dhule, Nasik and Malegaon recently.“We found that the working conditions of the sanitary workers in other cities are also in a pitiable condition. These workers work two or three times more because of the major staff crunch. There are many vacant posts but the concerned civic body authorities are not filling them. The sanitary workers are very less in number as compared to the rapid growth of the city,” he added.In the past 25 years, the municipal body has not conducted any recruitment in the solid waste management department. However, the city is facing an acute shortage of the sanitary workers.As per the committee’s recommendations, the city needs over 5,000 sanitary workers who should be provided with basic facilities such as housings, special allowances and other welfare schemes.