Members of Village/Ward Sachivalayam Employees Union protest against GVMC, in Visakhapatnam. , Photo Credit: File photo: KR Deepak
Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) 40-year-old environment and sanitation secretary B. The death of Chandramohan (Zone IV) has come under criticism from the Secretariat staff and opposition parties. Employees alleging mental stress due to work pressure from higher officials to collect user fee for garbage collection as the cause of Chandramohan’s death, are demanding that GVMC immediately stop using them for collecting user fee and for this a Appoint a third party. purpose.
According to the secretariat staff, Chandramohan was given big targets for collecting user charges and was allegedly humiliated by higher officials for failing to meet them. To meet the goals, he had taken a personal loan of Rs 1 lakh and paid it off. Later he was again under pressure to repay the loan.
“The ward in which Chandramohan was working is a residential area, where most of the population is workers and vendors. People do not pay user charges so easily. At one point of time, some other staff had to help him in the collection,” said a secretariat employee. He said that Chandramohan had shared his mental agony several times.
Around 550 secretaries are working in the sanitation and environment wing under GVMC limits. According to the secretaries, their main job is to ensure that cleanliness is well maintained in their jurisdiction, conduct inspections on shops, establishments, issue certificates and receive complaints from the public. But other than that, they are mostly engaged in charging user fees.
While some ask us to come later, some residents shut their doors in front of us. Many people get into heated arguments despite the government explaining about the rules, saying that collecting fees is an almost impossible task in slums and most residential areas.
The staff also say that Chandramohan’s death has clearly highlighted the difficulties they face on the field. Not only that, there are many employees who are paying user charges from their own pocket, unable to bear the pressure. They also complain that they are not being given casual leave and many of them are under stress due to work pressure and some are suffering from health ailments.
“Most of us are educated and have joined jobs to serve the people. But apart from serving the people, we are also working as a collection agent. There is no specific time for our work. We start early in the morning and end late at night. We have teleconference and video conference to assess your goals. We are the only wing that receives the maximum number of memos,” said a secretary.
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As per the findings of the GVMC, Chandramohan was suffering from some health ailments and also had family problems. Rejecting the allegations of workload and harassment in the jobs, Additional Commissioner V. Sanyasi Rao said, he died due to cerebral haemorrhage.
“On a monthly basis, we have so far been able to collect only 20% of the total user fee. But we never suspended any secretary nor took any action. When they talk about work pressure, of course all jobs have some work pressure, but it is not right to call it harassment. We motivate our employees to collect user charges by properly explaining the instructions of the government and GVMC never collects any money by using force,” said Mr. Sanyasi Rao.
“We strongly condemn the act of GVMC for using sanitation secretaries to collect user fees and put them under pressure by targeting them. Rs 50 lakh compensation should be given to Chandramohan’s family and a government job should be given to a member of his family. Meanwhile, strict action should be taken against the officials responsible for his death.”
CPI(M) Councilor
B Ganga Rao.
“First of all the clap vans are irregular on duty while garbage collection is not proper. The sweepers do not have proper machinery. Instead of focusing on charging user fee, which people are completely opposed to, GVMC should focus on proper sanitation. However, it is a fact that the sanitation secretaries are put under tremendous pressure to collect user charges, which is atrocious.
says Jana Sena Party (JSP) corporator PLVN Murthy.