Ludhiana: After Congress MLA Sanjay Talwar raised the matter of inadequate sanitation staff in the house meeting on February 4, mayor Balkar Sandhu has formed a committee for compiling a list of sanitation staff and recommend whether there was need to employ more sanitation employees in any ward of the city. However, members claimed that the lists were already available with officers.Talwar, MLA from Ludhiana East constituency, had raised a hue and cry over fewer number of sweepers and sewermen in the wards in his constituency. He had asked the mayor to provide him a list of these employees ward-wise, so that the picture could become clear. A high-level drama was witnessed in the meeting over this issue when three Congress MLAs had cornered the Congress mayor.In this committee, senior deputy mayor Sham Sunder Malhotra, Harbhajan Dang, Om Prakash Ratra, Pal Singh Grewal, Jai Parkash, Kuldeep Janda, member-secretary Jasdev Sekhon, health branch nodal officer Ashwani Sahota, medical officers (Health) Vipul Malhotra and Jasvir Kaur have been made members. Sources revealed that in order to divert the issue, mayor Sandhu had formed this committee. Moreover, MP elections are going to take place, and differences among Congress leaders should not be highlighted.Sandhu said: “In order to avoid allegations of pick and choose, I have formed this committee to streamline the number of sanitation staff according to requirement of wards, and if committee members will recommend there is need to hire more staff, we will do it.” Meanwhile, Malhotra said he had received the letter, but he was also not sure about the exact role of this committee, because this is basically the role of officials to distribute staff equally. He said even then, the mayor had formed a committee, so they would conduct a meeting with other members and take a final decision.Notably, there are over 5,000 sanitation employees, but even then, councillors keep raising the issue of shortage of sanitation employees with officers. Zonal commissioner Jasdev Sekhon, however, said he had conveyed it to the councillors that if any permanent employee remained absent for more than four days, he should be informed about it. Sekhon added he would would suspend that employee if permanent, and if contractual, he or she would be replaced.

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