Months after it engaged hundreds of workers to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the last couple of years, the Coimbatore Corporation is finding itself in the position of having to explain the expenditure incurred for the purpose.
Starting August 2020, the Corporation had engaged persons on contract to work as fever survey workers.
The Corporation started by engaging 5,000 persons at ₹500 a day. It had asked them to go door-to-door with thermal scanners and pulse oximeters to check on the city’s residents. After checking every occupant of each house, they would report to the Corporation the details of those persons who showed fever symptoms for further testing to ascertain their COVID-19 status.
The Corporation had also tasked the workers with the job of checking the health of persons in containment zones.
As it went about combating the COVID-19 spread and the number of cases declined the Corporation gradually reduced the number fever survey workers only to increase it during the second wave. Finally, when the Corporation ended their services in January this year, it had 500 such workers, the sources said. The money the Corporation had spent on the workers totaled ₹14 crore.
This expenditure had caught the attention of the Directorate of Local Fund Audit, which, through the district administration had sought an explanation from the civic body. The sources said the Directorate wanted to know how could the Corporation pay the workers in cash when the rules explicitly stated that not more than ₹1,000 a person a month could be given in cash.
The Corporation ought to have credited the wages in their bank account, the sources said and this was what the Directorate had wanted to know.
The Corporation would respond to the Directorate’s questionnaire very soon, the sources said. It would explain the circumstances under which it had to pay in cash.
