Shortage of workers has hampered pest control measures of the Kochi Corporation even as mosquito menace continues unabated in the city.
After a brief lull, mosquito menace has peaked in many parts of the city. The swarming mosquitoes have been presenting sleepless nights to city dwellers.
The sanctioned strength of mosquito control workers for the city is quite low when compared to the requirements. At present, there are only 700-plus workers for all the 74 divisions of the civic body, which is home to around seven lakh people. The city used to have nearly 1,700 workers a few decades ago when the Corporation area was not this big and the population was comparatively less, said T.K. Ashraf, chairperson of the health standing committee.
The successive governments have not positively responded to the request of the civic body to restore the staff strength. The city needs to have enough workers who could be deployed for mosquito control measures, he said.
The civic body is in the process of recruiting 142 casual workers exclusively for pest control measures. As many as 155 persons had appeared for the interview, and appointment orders were issued for around 100 persons. Incidentally, this was the second attempt of the Corporation to recruit workers during the last few months as there were not enough applicants during the first recruitment drive.
A casual worker will be paid ₹650 a day, and the six-hour-long work begins at 7 a.m. The workers would be deployed for fogging, spraying of larvicides, clearing of mosquito breeding points, and other sanitation works.
At present, the civic body would be able to deploy only two workers to a division, which is insufficient to effectively carry out the work. Each division would require at least 20 workers to effectively carry out pest control measures considering the geographical spread of the divisions, according to the civic administrator.
Published - October 09, 2024 10:21 pm IST
