Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC) has kept its word, starting night cleaning shifts in the coal town from Wednesday with more than 50 labourers pressed into action to lift garbage from 15 wards.
To begin with, the drive was carried out at all major squares and main roads in the urban centres spanning wards 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33 from 2pm to 10pm.
The Dhanbad town area under DMC is divided into three sanitary circles - Hirapur, Bank More and Manaitant. Each circle has five wards each.
Speaking about the initiative to The Telegraph on Thursday, Dhanbad mayor Chandrashekhar Agarwal said: "We have started work in Dhanbad circle from yesterday (Wednesday) and will be gradually moving to major urban centres or densely populated areas of other circles like Jharia and Katras. In total, we will be covering 33 wards - all urban centres - across the district."
As of now, the civic body has received labourers from a local NGO, Frontline Infrastructure, which was engaged by it for cleanliness work last year after the exit of A2Z Management Pvt. Ltd. Frontline Infrastructure supplied 50 labourers on Wednesday and 75 on Thursday.
"The second shift in Jharia and Katras circles will start within a week. By then, we will have more manpower and machinery like tractors. Garbage transportation will be carried out at night only in such areas, where it is difficult to work during day because of heavy traffic," Agarwal said.
The mayor added that the 825 labourers supplied by 22 organisations for day cleaning shifts from 6am to 2pm were not enough and they would try to rope in other agencies with whom they entered into agreements for supply of workers last year.
Arjun Ram, sanitary inspector of Hirapur circle, said, "We have engaged 12 labourers and two tractors for lifting garbage since yesterday (Wednesday) for busy areas like the civil court, Combined Building Chowk, PMCH main gate, Income Tax Colony etc. Eight tractors full of garbage were cleared during the drive. Today (Thursday), we doubled the number of labourers to 25 in Hirapur."
The corporation has also started a fogging drive in different wards of the district in view of monsoon, the breeding season of mosquitoes that cause malaria.
Fogging was carried out in Gandhinagar locality of Dhanbad from 3pm to 5pm on Wednesday, while on Friday, it will be conducted in ward 39 of Lodna in Jharia circle.
