Pehowa MC to begin night sweeping

Nitish Sharma

Kurukshetra, June 26

Struggling to maintain sanitation in Pehowa, the Municipal Committee (MC) of Pehowa has decided to start night sweeping and deploy a separate team of sanitation workers to maintain cleanliness at tirthas.

Pehowa is a major religious tourist destination in Kurukshetra district and every year, lakhs of tourists and devotees reach here from across the county to offer prayers for their ancestors. Maintaining cleanliness has been a mammoth task for the Municipal Committee of Pehowa due to the shortage of sanitation workers.

As per information, against the requirement of 140 sanitation workers, the civic body has 54 workers. As there are 17 wards under the MC jurisdiction, nearly two sanitation workers are assigned duties in each ward to maintain sanitation, which is a tough task.

The committee has decided to deploy 42 employees for night sweeping and 15 for three tirthas through outsourcing.

Ashish Sharma, Chairperson, Municipal Committee, Pehowa, said, “At present, there are just 54 sanitation workers employed with the MC. Of them, close to seven workers remain on leave due to personal reasons. The responsibility to clean the wards and commercial areas is on the existing employees. For door-to-door garbage collection, an agency was hired. However, due to congested lanes of old colonies, it was difficult for garbage collection vehicles to collect the waste. Thereafter, carts were used to collect the garbage. Waste is collected at collection points and then it is lifted. The entire process takes time.”

“Maintaining sanitation conditions has been a difficult task due to the staff crunch. Now, it has been decided to start night sweeping in Pehowa so that market areas and roads can be cleaned at night and garbage is lifted in time. All formalities have been completed and soon, a tender will be floated,” he added.

The Chairperson said, “As part of the night sweeping tender, the committee will get 42 employees through outsourcing. It will help us keep the town clean. Pehowa is a religious tourist destination and lakhs of tourists and devotees reach here every year but the lack of sanitation at the tirthas was another major issue for us. To ensure sanitation at the Prachi Tirtha, Sarasvati Tirtha and Brahmayoni Tirtha, a separate tender has been floated through which 15 sanitation workers will be assigned cleanliness duties. They will keep the ghats, ponds and other areas of the tirthas clean.”