Understaffed SDMC makes students clean their schools

 Municipal corporation officials have been citing staff shortage for not maintaining sanitation in the city.

The crunch, however, has reached such an extreme point that the staff of civic body schools is making students clean the premises.

Kalpana Jha, councillor from Sangam Vihar in south Delhi, said the teaching staff of the municipal school in I-Block is making students clean the premises as the sweepers have not turned up for work.

“There are some 4,000 to 4,500 students in the school, which runs in two shifts. Its condition is very bad. Most of the time the sweepers don’t turn up. Even if they do, they are not much concerned about their work as there is nobody to monitor it,” Jha said.
“The teachers and other staff members let students clean classrooms and utensils, which are used for serving mid-day meal,” Jha added.

Taking up the matter in the House meeting of South Delhi Municipal Corporation, she asked officials to probe the matter.

South Corporation commissioner Manish Gupta said the inquiry will be conducted by officials of the department concerned.

Garbage issue

Earlier, councillors cutting across party lines slammed civic agency officials for not clearing garbage in their respective areas regularly.

Terming the discussion on clearing garbage a waste of time and energy, some councillors threatened to disrupt House proceedings if the matter was not taken care of immediately.

“We have been discussing the issue time and again. The officials must tell us what they are going to do about it, or whether they can do it,” said a Congress councillor.
“At least we can make it clear to our voters that nothing can be done on this front. We won’t allow the House to function if things don’t change,” said the councillor.
Corporation officials said they are doing their best to maintain sanitation, but are struggling with shortage of staff at the supervisory level.

According to officials, 168 of 339 posts of assistant sanitary inspectors and 18 of 123 posts of sanitary inspectors are vacant in SDMC.