Public health activities in the city have been affected owing to unauthorised alterations made in attendance reports maintained for temporary malaria workers in many of the 200 wards across the city.
According to estimates, sanitary inspectors in various wards have been tampering with the attendance reports for around 20% of temporary malaria workers, leading to deficiency in services pertaining to control of mosquito-borne diseases.
For example, a malaria worker in ward 113 in Nungambakkam, who was terminated on September 5 for failure to control dengue cases, was reinstated after a few weeks, with significant alterations in the attendance report by officials concerned. The malaria worker was paid wages for the days he did not work, sources claimed.
‘Action being taken’
Similar cases of unauthorised alterations have affected public health in several areas of the city. A senior official of the Chennai Corporation said the civic body was taking action against 2,100 temporary malaria workers, by terminating them for failure to control cases of mosquito-borne diseases.
However, many sanitary inspectors, sanitary officers and assistant health officers had been making unauthorised alterations in attendance reports of temporary workers who do not carry out their work.
Most temporary workers, who are part of self-help groups, have also not been able to carry out work in their sectors, covering 80 houses, every day. Many such workers have also been asked by sanitary inspectors to carry out other works, offering them wages under the National Urban Livelihood Mission.
Temporary workers also do not have adequate equipment for source reduction. For example, the Corporation has not even supplied torchlights for them to identify mosquito larvae. Workers do not have identity cards for showing residents before getting access to household permises.
“Temporary workers may misuse their identity cards. So we are cautious,” said an official. The Corporation needs more than 4,000 malaria workers for mosquito control. But it has only around 60% of the required number of workers on the rolls. So the civic body has been forced to rely on temporary workers.
