MCI to return 1,000 safety kits to donor

Islamabad : Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), after failing to convince its sanitary workers for wearing the safety kits, has decided to return the same to the donor Inter-faith League Against Poverty (ILAP), said Director Sanitation Sardar Khan Zimri.

“We have conveyed to the ILAP that the IMC is ready to return the personal protective kits as the workers cannot wear it in the current hot weather due to its weather-unfriendly stuff,” he said while talking to this agency on Sunday.

Zimri said about 600 sanitary workers were given the kits to ensure their safety from the coronavirus but most of them refused to wear due to the prevailing hot and humid weather. The ILAP, Zimri said, had asked the IMC to ensure wearing of the kits by force or return the same.

Some of the workers were compelled to wear the safety kits but they felt uncomfortable and became unconscious while performing their duty under the sun, he noted. The MCI director said about 40 per cent staff of the sanitation department comprised of women, who had never expressed willingness to wear the kits.

Commenting over the development, ILAP Chairman Sajid Ishaq, however, said: The IMC is making lame excuses just to cover its incompetency and mismanagement. Sajid said his organization had provided 1,000 safety kits of international standards to the IMC sanitation department, which included face shields, goggles, gloves, protective suits and masks.

However, the MCI had failed to ensure that all the workers wear the safety kits, he added. The ILAP chairman said the MCI could not understand the use of kits and failed to follow the SOPs (standard operating procedures) in that regard.

“I have seen the workers who put the protective suits on already worn clothes, which negates the SOPs, set for its use,” he remarked.

A sanitary worker, who gets a kit from the MCI, said: ”It is not made to fit our weather as it undermines the efficiency of our work.” Joint Christian Action Committee Rawalpindi and Islamabad President Basharat Khokhar, however, rejected the notion that all the sanitary workers had received the safety kits. As of now, there are 1,200 permanent workers of the MCI sanitation wing and 800 working under the private contractors. “Only 50 per cent have got the kits so far,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the residents of various sectors also complained about the sanitary workers, who had been collecting garbage even without wearing a mask and gloves.

Ashfaq Ahmed, a resident of Sector G-7, said the sanitary workers without masks and gloves had not only been exposing themselves to the coronavirus threat but also others.