COURESY HT SEPT 24
MCG to pay biomedical waste lifters ₹300 per day
A health worker handles medical waste for disposal outside a hospital. PTI
Kartik Kumar
kartik.kumar@htlive.com
Gurugram: As the Covid-19 cases continue to rise across the city, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has decided to give monetary incentive to sanitation workers involved in lifting of biomedical waste from affected homes.
As per officials, since April 1, 16 workers of MCG’s concessionaire for waste collection have been lifting biomedical waste collected from Covid-19 patients under home isolation across the city. To ensure they do not get deterred by the rising cases, each worker will be paid ₹300 per day to lift biomedical waste, the MCG officials said, adding that each of them will get a lump sum of ₹54,000 for the past six months (April-September).
“We recognise the efforts and risks taken by biomedical waste lifters during this crucial period. Hence, we have decided to soon give them monetary incentives and also felicitate their contributions with a certificate. MCG is taking multiple steps towards ensuring the spread of coronavirus is minimised and careful waste collection is one of them,” said Vinay Pratap Singh, commissioner, MCG.
The MCG officials said that the monetary incentive is likely to be paid on a monthly basis from October onwards, after paying the six-month lump sum to the workers.
MCG had earlier outsourced the lifting of biomedical waste. However, the firm hired by the civic body refused to collect such waste from homes, saying that they didn’t have the necessary infrastructure for the same, the officials said. MCG has then asked Ecogreen, its door-to-door waste concessionaire, to step in.
The MCG officials said that most workers refused to pick up biomedical waste, and it was only after asking hundreds of workers did they finally manage to find 16 workers who volunteered to carry out the task.
“Our initial concessionaire was accustomed to only lifting hospital medical waste from a designated spot. It did not have the manpower and infrastructure to lift biomedical waste on a citywide scale and cancelled the contract. Hence, we asked Ecogreen take over the responsibility,” said an MCG official privy to the matter.
Ecogreen has been lifting Gurugram’s waste since August 2017.
The MCG official said that initially, they (Ecogreen) had attached one help with each driver of a garbage collection vehicle to lift biomedical waste from the doorstep of Covid-19 patients under home isolation. Then MCG decided to rope in RWAs in July to dump biomedical waste at a designated secluded spot or get them directly dumped inside garbage vehicles to ensure minimal human contact.
The official further said that with coronavirus cases rising rapidly in the city over the last one month, the MCG feared that the 16 drivers may also opt against the task which could put the city at risk. “With the sudden rise in cases over the last month, we decided it was time to incentivise the workers to ensure they continue to lift biomedical waste and not get deterred by the growing spread of the virus,” said the MCG official.
As per official data, on August 23, the total number of coronavirus cases in Gurugram was 10,971, which rose to 18,800 cases on September 23, an increase of 71%. Of the 18,800 cases, there are 2,629 patients under home isolation. On August 23, there were only 795 patients under home isolation, the data shows.
A spokesperson of Ecogreen said, “When coronavirus had started surfacing in the city, MCG asked us for support. In correlation, we hired special vehicles and manpower for the lifting of waste from active Covid homes. All government norms and measures are being undertaken to not only protect our staff, but also the residents of Gurugram.”
As per the MCG officials, all 16 vehicles are parked at a secluded spot near the community centre in Sukhrali where they are washed, disinfected, and sanitised every day after operations are completed.
Sonia Duhan, waste consultant at MCG, said, “Workers were unwilling to volunteer as they feared contracting coronavirus. It was only after assurances that all safety measures would be adopted that we were able to form a separate team for biomedical waste collection.” Duhan said that the workers were informed that they will be provided personal protection kits, regular health check-up, and training in lifting of biomedical waste.