Maharashtra govt plans to procure 100 robots to clean manholes

The 2019 notification was issued for implementation of the Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 through local bodies, contractors and the social justice department. As per the notification, vigilance panels were required to probe cases of manual scavengers who died since 1993.

Of 81 death cases, 11 were from Mumbai city and suburban districts, 12 from Thane, 7 from Palghar and 2 from Raigad. The Union Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment had commissioned a social audit of such works and had already pulled up the state government for failing to address the deaths of sanitary workers.

Maharashtra’s Social Justice minister Sanjay Shirsat said, “We will first conduct a one-month trial with the new robot in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation. After successful testing, we will procure 100 robots and give them to all the municipal corporations in the state.”

The trial will run for at least a month and a detailed report on its functioning will be compiled based on which further action will be taken.
“Similar robots are already being used in states like Kerala. These are indigenously made and are more capable than the existing ones,” Shirsat said.

“There are already a couple of robots in use, but their capacity is low. The ones we are going to buy have a higher capacity for cleaning and segregation of waste. The existing robots can operate at 180 degrees, whereas the new robots can operate at 360 degrees,” he said.