Rag-pickers to get means of livelihood

Sangareddy: Hanumanth Rao Naik, Deputy Executive Engineer of Sangareddy municipality assured The Hans India that he would be more than happy to give employment to ‘Pochammalollu,’ a rag-picking community, living in Marx Nagar Colony, who earn their livelihood by selling plastic, paper and other stuff in the morning and by begging in the afternoon.

In an exclusive interview with The Hans India, he assured that sanitation was high on the municipality’s agenda and the municipality needed more workers to join the team. The Hans India had published a story on the pathetic conditions in which about 50 families of ‘Pochammalollu’ were living in a slum of Sangareddy several months ago.

People from the community were ready to quit begging and making their children beg forcefully, if they were shown some kind of livelihood in Sangareddy municipality. The Hans India has been continuously following-up with Women and Child Welfare officials regarding this issue.

In fact, this week the department is also planning to hold a health and awareness camp in the slum to get the children to join school and empower the people of the community to quit begging and get on to the track of development by extending their services to the society in whatever form.

However, there are certain conditions which the community needs to follow. Children should be joined in schools and people should stop begging on the roads which has become a menace not only to general public but also to the community itself. Hanumanth Rao Naik said the sanitation workers would be paid Rs 8,300 per month on outsourcing basis.

He said that five acres of land had been identified on the outskirts of Sangareddy for construction of a dump yard from where dry and wet garbage would be segregated, organic fertilizer would be produced and distributed to farmers in the area.

For this, he said people would be needed and due to the skill which Pochammalollu already possessed with regard to solid waste management, it would not be an issue to hire them- if they were sincere enough to work.

“In another 10-15 days we would reach an agreement with stakeholders regarding the construction of the dump yard. Then the District Collector would have to give us a letter and then we would sanction the dump yard and send it to the Municipal Council for approval,” he said.

When The Hans India spoke to Pochammalollu on Monday, they were not only excited but were also happy because they thought their lives could change if they were hired by the municipality.

It is surprising to know that Sangareddy municipality, an A Grade municipality which was formed in 1956, still doesn’t have a garbage dump yard.
Naik added that steps were being taken to lay drains, CC roads and BT roads across the municipality and that sanitation in public places like movie theatres, schools, parks, bus stands, hotels and other locations was high priority.

However, he pointed-out that it was also the responsibility of each and every individual to ensure their surroundings were clean. He pointed-out that there was also an urgent need to build outfall drains and to set up a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in the municipality, as all the drains in the municipality lead to irrigation tanks, becoming serious environmental and health hazards for the residents.

“We have seen that people have been dumping garbage in places where dumping has been prohibited. We have decided to monitor such violations, take pictures of the violators and then dump garbage at their door steps if they continue to do so,” he quipped. Removal of pigs and stray dogs from slums and other places, achieving 100 per cent of door-to-door garbage collection and a sincere political will to develop the municipality could yield excellent results for the municipality in the near future.

By Vivek Bhoomi