Come July 4, the first batch of 40 pourakarmikas, accompanied by two officials from the State, will leave for Singapore to study the civic cleanliness and manhole cleaning system adopted there. In all, 25 batches will visit Singapore in the next few months.
The State government, which on Friday announced that the services of 11,000 pourakarmikas will be regularised, is set to send 1,000 pourakarmikas on a study tour to Singapore. A sum of ₹2 crore has been released for this purpose and final clearances for the trip from the State and Singapore governments have been obtained.
Manhole cleaning
H. Anjaneya, Social Welfare Minister, told presspersons on Saturday that the civic workers will study the state-of-the-art manhole cleaning system in place in Singapore.
“Although our State has progressed in terms of cleanliness, manhole cleaning still remains a challenge. Despite the use of machines, we are repeatedly witnessing manhole deaths and other accidents involving pourakarmikas in this process. We need to put an end to this,” the Minister said.
Vishal R., director, Municipal Administration, said 1,000 permanent workers chosen from across the State will be sent in 25 batches to Singapore. “Each group will be guided by one environmental engineer and one sanitary health inspector from various urban local bodies. We will first send three to four batches and take stock of how much they learn and how will it help them. Then we will send the other batches,” he said.
Not many women
Although the Municipal Administration Directorate wanted adequate women representation in the teams, there are not many women pourakarmika takers for the tour. Dr Vishal said not a single woman worker had been identified from nearly seven urban local bodies. “I have asked them to resend the list with adequate women representation. We are hoping to see atleast 25% women participation in the team of 1,000 workers,” he said.
The Directorate has tied up with MSIL for the study tour arrangements including travel and accommodation. “The teams will spend four days in Singapore and will be put up in twin-sharing hotel rooms. The approximate expenditure on each worker is around ₹75,000. We will also be giving them some money in hand for their personal expenses,” Dr. Vishal added.
