Deshmukh announces free houses for sanitation staff

The gesture comes close on the heels of The Indian Express report last week on the deaths of sanitation workers in Pune.

Turning to senior bureaucrats, he said, “If anyone questions why houses have been provided to them, Mr (municipal) commissioner tell them first to remove filth for years.”

According to the decision, 5,400 conservancy staff of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) staying in official quarters would become owners of their houses. For the remaining workers, the state is working out a proposal that may include construction of new tenements. Likewise, in Pune, 1,500 sanitary workers staying in official quarters would become owners of their houses.

Since the conservancy staff are prone to various diseases as they have to work in hazardous conditions and at times do not have enough money to get themselves treated, Deshmukh has ordered that a special fund be made available to the deans of civic hospitals for treating them. He said the money could be given to the patients on recommendation of a medical officer to buy medicines from outside the hospital.

“The life span of a conservancy worker is 35 to 45 years because of the inhuman conditions in which they have to work,” Salve told The Indian Express. “In 1987 the State government had resolved that if a sanitary worker is residing in official quarters for 35 years, he should be made owner of the house free of cost. But it was not implemented.”