This ad hoc panel ensures cleanliness, exposes anomalies amid pandemic

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 18

Members of the sanitation and health ad hoc committee have been ensuring cleanliness in the city and exposing anomalies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

From pointing out discrepancies in the lifting of garbage to conducting tests of sanitation workers and looking after residents of their own wards, chairman of the committee Balraj Thakur, along with members, has been on the forefront for long.

I get motivation from doctors, police personnel and every person who is working in the field amid the pandemic. If they can fight, how can we stay away from our duties? We are appointed by people and it is our duty to work for them and whatever it takes, I will do for them. — Balraj Thakur, Chairman, Sanitation, Health Ad hoc Committee

Besides, committee members have also been proving motivational support to other workers. Recently, the adhoc committee revealed that garbage lifting vehicles were 15 years old and they could be unsafe on roads. Besides, the committee members supervised the garbage lifting process for the entire day to highlight any malpractice.

The chairman wrote a letter to the Mayor and asked him to look into the matter and take strict action against those who were in wrong practice. He wrote that the garbage-lifting vehicles were without number plates and were in dire need of repair.

Concerned about the health of sanitation workers, Thakur has also been organising camps in which they are being tested for Covid-19. When the pandemic had hit the city, councillor Thakur had also sealed 90 per cent areas of his Ward No. 28. Besides, he had formed a ‘fight corona’ group in his ward. In every area, only one entry point was kept open.

Active member of the adhoc committee and councillor of Ward No. 78 Jagdish Samrai also sealed some of areas of his ward. He was quick in distributing cooked food, along with the medicines, in his area where a large number of residents live in slums.

Thakur said, “I get motivation from doctors, police personnel and every person who is working in the field amid the pandemic. If they can fight, how can we stay away from our duties?” he said. “We are appointed by people and it is our duty to work for them and whatever it takes, I will do for them,” said Samrai.