The civic body and the district administration, in their summer heat advisories, have called on people, particularly children and elders not to step out of homes in the day unless there is an important work.
It seems most of the sanitation workers have taken the advisory for granted and are skipping duties, unable to bear the brunt of the scorching sun that literally turned the city into a burning furnace.
46.2° Celsius
The city on Tuesday witnessed a maximum temperature of 46.2° Celsius and the real feel was around 55° Celsius.
For the past one month, high temperature has been affecting sanitation workers who have to dare the blazing sun and heat waves and transport garbage from doorsteps to dumper bins apart from sweeping the roads.
In the majority of the areas, they have to climb hundreds of steps to reach households on hill slopes.
At the Municipal Council meeting, held here on Tuesday, 15th division corporator Kavati Damodar Rao, raising the issue of poor attendance of sanitation workers, asked Mayor Koneru Sridhar to conduct a thorough review of the sanitation wing.
“Out of 35 workers in the division, only seven turned up for the work in the morning. It is impossible to keep the division clean with so few workers,” Mr. Rao said.
When another corporator raised the same issue, Mr. Sridhar responded saying the same situation was being faced in all divisions and sought an explanation from Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) M. Gopi Naik.
On loss of pay
The Chief Medical and Health Officer said rising temperature had been taking a toll on the sanitation workers who were going on leave without pay (loss of pay).
Mr. Sridhar said large scale absenteeism could not be tolerated as sanitary work in the city went for a toss.
The majority of the sanitation workers are working on a contract basis while there are about 900 permanent staffers.
Those who skip work on a regular basis are permanent staff.
Inspection
Municipal Commissioner J. Nivas, who inspected the attendance registers, warned sanitation inspectors of action if they failed to register attendance of workers properly.
