Unfulfilled promises irk conservancy staff

Conservancy staff at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) are tired of the National Commission for Safai Karmacharis repeating the same old promises time and again.

Promotion
A member of the National Commission for Safai Karmacharis, Shyoraj Jivan, visited the city yesterday and yet again announced that conservancy staff educated till Std X would be promoted to clerks.

Reacting to the announcement, conservancy staff at the PMC said it was not the first time that such a promise had beenmade. Satish Laldige, president of the All India Safai Karmacharis, at the PMC said such promises were nothing new.

"I am educated till SSC, but I have not been promoted as a clerk," he said. "In his previous visit in March this year, Jivan made similar promises, but none of these were ever fulfilled."u00a0Laldige has put in 20 years as a conservancy worker at the PMC.

Housing
Addressing the media, Jivan said the vacant posts of conservancy staff in the PMC would be filled and houses will be built for the workers.

Laldige said three apartments were built in Aundh under Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Shrama Saflya Yojana, but none of these were allotted to conservancy staffers.

"We have 261 posts vacant since 1994," Laldige said. "Every time the commission announces recruitment of workers to the vacant posts, but no action has yet been taken in this regard."

Medical check-up
Jivan also made the assurance that a quarterly medical check-up would be conducted for conservancy staff. Laldige said that his organisation had been demanding regular medical check-ups since 2009, especially for those who clean drains, but these demands had never been met. u00a0