By Rajnish Singh
New Delhi, Jun 22 (IANS): A four-day-old order issued by South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) "replacing 32 MCD school teachers with sanitation workers" was for "House to House survey" for identification, testing of COVID suspects and not for sanitation work, the Commissioner who signed the order told IANS.
The order, issued on June 19, triggered controversy and Assistant Commissioner Manish Kumar Meena had to reissue the order with "clarification" on the next day. The officer is deployed with SDMC's Najafgarh Zone.
"The order did not mean that government teachers will work in place of sanitation workers," Meena told IANS on phone clarifying the matter.
On June 19, Meena issued an order which directed to "place 32 teachers in place of sanitation workers at the disposal of medical officers incharge for their further duties".
In the order, the sanitation workers deputed in the New Delhi district were directed to report back to their concerned ward incharges (SI/ASIs) with immediate effect.
It was requested that their attendance may be provided to the department by 16th of every month so that their salary bills may be processed timely.
But the order created controversy as the duty of teachers was not clarified in it giving the wrong impression that they will have to engage in the job done by sanitation workers.
As the order copy was also marked to the District Magistrate of New Delhi District (Chairman DDMA), Deputy Commissioner Najafgarh and other concerned officers, the matter sought quick reaction.
On June 20, Meena came with another order with "clarification" to the previous order referring that "the 32 MCD school teachers are attached with DDMA (Delhi Disaster Management Authority) New Delhi district to carry out 'House to House survey' for identification, testing of COVID suspects and isolation of positive cases as per the request received from DDMA New Delhi".
"The MCD school teachers are advised to work under command and control of DDMA till further orders."
While talking to IANS, Meena said he issued the June 19 order as there was a demand from the New Delhi district for a team to visit dispensaries and houses to get the exact number of COVID-19 patients in Mahipalpur, Samalkha and other areas.
"It was clearly mentioned in the demand that the sanitation workers are not educated enough and the New Delhi District needed other MCD employees who can handle such works properly. As government teachers are already engaged in distributing food and other works, it was decided to send them for the job and they were replaced with 32 sanitation workers," Meena said.
Earlier, the SDMC had sent around 1,240 corona warriors from our department to different areas on request of District Magistrate during lockdown 2.0, he said.
A team of 40 foot warriors, including beat constable from Delhi Police, Block Level Officer (BLO) and an Asha worker with a sanitation worker, was availed during the lockdown to the District Magistrate.