‘Fill vacant civic workers' posts at dist level’

National Commission for Safai Karmacharis Member Jagadish Hiremani instructed the officials to ensure social, educational and economic empowerment of civic workers by extending various government welfare schemes to them.

He was speaking at a review meeting held to discuss the effective implementation of development programmes earmarked for the improvement of civic workers in urban local bodies and all others departments.

Hiremani said that the officials concerned should ensure that the civic workers were using the safety gears while on duty.

Medical expense

He said that medical expense of the civic workers and their family members should be borne by the urban local bodies.

The awareness on welfare schemes under Ambedkar Nigam and other schemes should be created among the workers.

Vacant posts of civic workers should be filled at district level. The workers should be given an identity card, along with names of their family members, to avail the benefits, he added.

Hiremani added that the housing facility should be extended to the workers and they should also be provided a house on their own.

He added that the zilla panchayat chief executive officer should take measures to create awareness against manual scavenging.

Although there are no reported cases of manual scavenging in Udupi, there might be a few incidents in rural areas.

The officials involved in the crime will also be punished, he said.

He added that Mudra Yojana offers financial assistance to purchase sucking machine at a lesser rate of interest and manual scavengers in rural areas should be encouraged to purchase it.

He said that measures should be taken up to create alternative jobs to manual scavengers.

There are 298 civic workers in the district. As much as Rs 13.77 lakh is spent on the safety equipment and another Rs 15.20 lakh is earmarked to offer breakfast to the workers, an officer said.

The education scholarships are offered to the children of civic workers, the officers added.