Chandigarh: Civic body to outsource sanitation work of ward no. 9

Dhanda said that the civic body could not clean the entire town with currently available manpower and the cleanliness machines. “These sectors are fully occupied in terms of land use and population, and have the maximum number of sanitation workers on duty. So, if we give the work to an agency, we will be able to avail the services of these sanitation workers elsewhere. MC cannot clean the entire town otherwise,” he said.

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Deputy Commissioner Vivek Atray said that the civic body was reeling under shortage of staff, and efforts were being made to strengthen the corporation. “We have written to the government for filling vacancies. At the same time, we are carrying out cleanliness drives under Swachhta Abhiyan, which we extended till November 6, and outsourcing some work,” he said.

As per the plan, the corporation will hire a private agency, which will be responsible for ensuring proper sanitation in the selected ward, ranging from collection of waste to its disposal.

With a special focus on sanitation, which is also the key area of MC functioning, the officials said that the civic body had also put into use various machines, including dumper placers and refuse collectors which had been lying unused for long.

The corporation has also decided to hire an automatic sweeping machine, on the lines of Chandigarh and Mohali.

“We ran it on a trial basis in Panchkula, and we have decided to hire one machine, for which we have invited expression of interest from agencies,” said Dhanda, adding that 60 dustbins had already been procured by MC which are compatible with refuse collectors.

Among other development works announced were tenders of Rs 4 crore to be invited for installation of LED lights in 55 villages under MC, online payments for park development societies and strengthening public participation by forming Citizen Supervisory Committee for supervision of civic works carried out by the corporation.

Dhanda said that MC had also decided to crack down on residents violating rules, and would lay special emphasis on issuing challans for 24 violations listed under the MC Act, 1994.

The officials said the administration had extended the date to November 6 for entries from residents for Rs 1 lakh prize for ‘best clean areas’ in Panchkula in 10 categories. Out of Rs 21 lakh given by Agriculture Minister O P Dhankar, winner in each category will be awarded Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh will be used to buy dustbins for parks.