Cleaners of the new agency at work at MGM Medical College and Hospital on Friday. Picture by Animesh Sengupta

MGM Medical College and Hospital seems to be kicking up a stink over its cleaning agency.

Tridev Enterprises, a private cleaning firm that had introduced a hi-tech system to tidy up the shabby medical college and hospital, was replaced with a new agency on Thursday evening.

Hospital superintendent S.S. Prasad said they were forced to terminate the contract with Tridev Enterprises as the cleaning staff had become unruly and the agency had failed to control them.

“The previous firm was doing a good job and even succeeded in giving the hospital a clean look in a very short span of time. But recent conflict between the agency management and the staff started taking a toll on cleaning activities. Hence, we were left with no other option than to replace the agency with a new one,” Prasad told The Telegraph.

The new agency, Advance Corporate, started work on Friday. But there was no mechanised mops or vacuum cleaners that the erstwhile firm had pressed into service. Cleaners engaged by the new firm were seen to be using brooms and cloths for sweeping and mopping the floor.

Tridev Enterprises’s proprietor K.K. Mishra slammed the MGM authorities for terminating his agency’s service.

Mishra said the labourers were at loggerheads with him as he wanted them to work in night shifts also.

“For maintaining a hospital like MGM, cleaning has to be done round the clock. Keeping this in mind, I had asked the workers to sign an affidavit, declaring that they would work in night shifts too. But most of them resisted the move,” Mishra said, adding that the MGM authorities should have given him some more time to sort out the issue.

He further accused the hospital superintendent of hiring another cleaning agency without following the proper norms. “The superintendent does not feel it necessary to carry out cleaning operations at night time,” said Mishra.

Mishra claimed to have submitted a protest petition to East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal.

Kaushal, however, said he had not received any complaint.