Sanitary works to be privatised in Trichy

The decision by the Trichy corporation to privatise sanitary works in the wards coming under the civic body limits received a flak from councillors belonging to the opposition parties. However, the council passed a resolution with support from the ruling AIADMK councillors here on Monday.
In the wake of the growing number of complaints about the unhygienic conditions in the wards due to dearth of sanitary workers, the Trichy corporation tabled an agenda seeking approval from the council to privatise sanitary work under the solid waste management programme in 21 out of the 65 wards of the corporation, initially. But the DMK councillors raised strong objections to the move saying that it would not bring a solution to the problem but would only worsen the situation. M Anbazhagan, floor leader of DMK said that the councillors cannot control the sanitary workers of the private concerns. They may collect money from the public for their work, he said. S Kavitha, 41st ward DMK councillor said the corporation should provide adequate number of sanitary workers instead of privatising the work.
According to the agenda, the corporation found it hard to manage the 65 wards with 1,655 sanitary workers against the sanctioned strength of 3,636 workers. Due to this, the work under the solid waste management came to a standstill. Also, the recruitment of sanitary workers to fill up 1,981 vacancies could not be taken up as the establishment expenditure should not exceed 49%. Hence, the corporation administration was forced to adopt the resolution to privatise the part of the work under the solid waste management in 21 wards in the four zones of Srirangam, Ariyamangalam, Ponmalai and K Abishekapuram.
Despite the opposition, the council finally passed the resolution with the majority support from the AIADMK councillors. The council hall also witnessed some tense moments after the opposition parties sought for a special meeting to discuss the water scarcity in the corporation. Later, the corporation mayor A Jaya accepted their demand to convene a meeting and the meeting resumed.