Home |Hyderabad| Follow Sops While Undertaking Cleaning Of Sewerage
‘Follow SOPs while undertaking cleaning of sewerage’
Hyderabad: The Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) department has asked the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner, Director of Municipal Administration and Managing Director of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HWWS&SB) to ensure scrupulous adherence to Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) communicated by the Central government while undertaking cleaning of sewers and septic […]
Hyderabad: The Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) department has asked the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner, Director of Municipal Administration and Managing Director of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HWWS&SB) to ensure scrupulous adherence to Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) communicated by the Central government while undertaking cleaning of sewers and septic tanks as well as general precautions listed out for work-site safety.
While it is heartening to note that the MA&UD department was extending multitude of civic services from water supply, sanitation, drainage cleaning, street lighting which are of day-to-day relevance to citizens from the common man to higher echelons of the society alike, it is regrettable that stray incidents of mishaps are happening at regular intervals which is a cause for serious concern, Special Chief Secretary to Government (MA&UD) Arvind Kumar said in a memo.
As the department is entrusted with the mandate of improving the quality of life in urban areas, it is invariably engaged in executing various infrastructure works of various magnitudes from minimal drain works to a big flyover construction.
He said though these capital, operation and maintenance works are executed by the contractors’agencies, the HoD concerned, field staff of department and Municipal Commissioner cannot take umbrage under this excuse as the ultimate responsibility of site safety at all points within a ULB rest with Municipal Commissioner.
Loss of human life – be it that of civilians, employees and workforce is unacceptable. In several of the recent incidents, the cause of the incident prima facie seems to be avoidable and safety lapses on the part of the field level staff.
Reasons like negligence in timely undertaking of preventive maintenance, absence of adherence to safety protocols at work sites, failure to put a safety barricade, danger signboards, insufficient illumination were resulting in avoidable mishaps taking precious human lives.
Such negligence of the field staff coupled with supervisory lapses on the part of senior officers are resulting in such accidents denting the image of the municipal bodies.
A meeting must be conducted with all engineering contractors, outsourced staff agencies, engineering teams, town planning teams, sanitation staff, electricity department Deputy Executive Engineer, Executive Engineer, and all builders and developers to specifically direct all concerned that no manhole, openings on footpath, any other such dangerous cavities, open electrical wires are not left unattended anywhere and must be attended to by the concerned in next 72 hours, the officials said.
The ward counselor, corporators and all ward members should be sensitized in this regard and any such dangerous, dark and vulnerable spots must be brought to the notice of officials immediately. All stakeholders from the field staff to the supervisory officers should be alert and cautious in avoiding worksite mishaps. Any negligence on their part will not be tolerated any more. It should be their endeavor to ensure safety of workers as well as the civilians by taking reasonable precautions at all worksites. In case of any mishap, henceforth, the jurisdictional staff shall be primarily held responsible and if any sort of negligence is found on their part, they will be made personally liable for the criminal misconduct leading to human injuries or loss of lives.
Immediate action including suspension and criminal negligence against the head concerned of the executing agency, HoD and Municipal Commissioner will be initiated, in case any such negligence is noticed henceforth. There should be zero tolerance to such incidents which are avoidable and calls for complete safety audit within next three days, Arvind Kumar said.
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