One safai karamchari for 84-acre historic Ram Bagh

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 8

The Municipal Corporation (MC) has deployed only one safai karamchari for the historic Ram Bagh, spread over 84 acres. Ironically, the MC has only four posts of safai karamcharis in the garden, out of which three lie vacant at present.

This information was revealed through an RTI filed by a local resident. On a query of Nishan Singh, resident of Kot Baba Deep Singh, an XEN of the horticulture department of the MC responded that the MC had deployed only one safai karamchari in Ram Bagh (also called Company Bagh).

Officials of the civic body’s horticulture wing claimed that they had deployed 10 beldars in the garden to maintain and clean the garden. However, even they were inadequate to maintain the garden.

According to the information, the sanitation job of gardens was with office of the Municipal Health Office (MHO) earlier. The MHO had a good number of safai karamcharis. When a shortage arose, the MHO asked the Landscape Officer to deploy beldars on the posts of safai karamcharis. Horticulture officials claimed that they had around 100 beldars against 170 sanctioned posts. Out of these, around 40 beldaras were working in other MC offices such as estate wing, advertise wing and cattle pound. Some of them are women, who were employed on compassionate ground. The horticulture department has only 40 beldars for all gardens and parks in the city.

Sandip Singh, XEN of the horticulture department, said; “We are facing staff shortage. We have deployed three beldars to keep the garden clean. There are a total 10 beldars to maintain parks of the Company Bagh.”

In the absence of required number of safai karamcharis, sanitation has been suffering in the historic garden. Heaps of garbage can be seen laying in parks and service lanes being used by elite clubs. Even the club authorities dump their garbage on roadside.

Meanwhile, a large area of the historic Ram Bagh has been encroached by individuals and politicians for their personal use. Despite court orders to remove encroachers from the garden, no action has been taken till date. Ironically, in a press statement few months back, Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu had supported these elite clubs.