Taking serious note of the high number of deaths of conservancy staffers attached to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) solid waste management, corporators on Wednesday slammed the civic body for their alleged apathetic approach towards the plight of these workers.
As reported in dna on December 17, 2707 conservancy labourers have lost their lives over the past 11 years. Following this, the civic body had undertaken a study into the deaths of the labourers. This development was published by this paper on December 24. Referring to the high number of deaths, members of the standing committee insisted that the BMC set things right for the workers.
"On the day when BMC appointed superstar Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador for its TB awareness campaign in a glittering ceremony held at a luxury hotel, 20 conservancy labourers were found to have contracted the disease at some other camp organised in Kurla. This is not a lone case. The BMC has been apathetic towards their plight in the past too as figures show," said Devendra Amberkar, opposition leader and Congress corporator, while raising a point of order in this regard. He reiterated that the workers are real ambassadors of cleanliness in the city.
While excess consumption of liquor is claimed to be one of the reasons behind the deaths of labourers, BJP corporator Vinod Shelar chose to cast light over the fact. He said: "Most of us won't be able to stand stench of garbage the workers are exposed to every day. To tackle the stench, the labourers consume liquor, which helps them to do their job," Shelar said.
The Malad corporator demanded that the civic body should take measures to help labourers cope up with fatigue. "You can't run organisations today with yesterday's assumptions," he added.
His party colleague, Dilip Patel, demanded that the corporation should provide
for mechanical sweeping to ensure lesser exposure to dirt and thereby avoid health concerns. "If it can be done in an area like Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), why not in other parts of Mumbai," asked Patel.
House leader and Shiv Sena corporator Trushna Vishwasrao demanded that BMC should carry out monthly health check-ups of conservancy labourers. "The department must also make it mandatory for the labourers to wear gumboots, hand gloves and masks while on duty," she added.
Reacting to concerns of the members, committee chairman Yashodhar Phanase held back the point of order, meaning the municipal administration will have to answer complaints put up by the members.
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