IE : In just over two yrs, 227 Pune civic staff died cleaning up the city's filth : Oct 12, 2007

DEATH TRAP ¦ In just over two yrs, 227 Pune civic staff died cleaning up the
city's filth
 'Sickness' labelled leading cause, commissioner says we will give gumboots,
gloves
 AJAY KHAPE
PUNE, OCTOBER 11

THIS is a city emerging as one of the country's next top metros fuelled by
the knowledge economy and the construction boom but keeping it clean is
turning out to be dirty and very dangerous. Alarm bells are ringing in the
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) after a startling official revelation: As
many as 227 Class IV PMC employees, with an average age of 45 years, have
died in the last 30 months.

They were all working as "conservancy staff" collecting and disposing
garbage, sweeping roads, cleaning underground sewage lines and unclogging
manholes.

Records obtained by The Indian Express reveal that according to the PMC's
Employment Welfare Register, 40 such employees have died in the first six
months of 2007-08 itself; 107 in 2006-07 and 80 in 2005-06. Incidentally,
2005-06 is the first year for which the PMC tabulated such data.
The break-up by cause of death has been done only for 2006-07 but the trend
is clear. While the leading cause is officially labelled in the PMC log
books as "sickness" without any details, the deaths have also been
attributed to tuberculosis, jaundice, heart disease and cancer.
Of the 107 who died in 2006-07, 81 were men and 26 women.
The age of the victims is a stark reminder of the fact that their deaths
were early: 32 were in the 30-40 year category, 38 in the 4050 year bracket,
37 above 50 years.

Of course, 227 is a small slice of the current 6826 employees in the PMC's
conservancy staff but officials admit that the problem could be much more
serious. In fact, the figures came to light only when relatives of the dead
filed to claim the Rs 15,000dole under the employment welfare scheme and a
job for a family member.

One of them is 21-yearold Umesh Bandge who works as a garbage collector. "My
father was also working in the garbage collection wing of PMC and died due
to TB in 2004 when he was only 45. He faced lot of medical problems and
every day was a struggle for us. Neither was my father given any protective
equipment then nor am I getting anything now," he says. For the year 2004,
in which his

Publication : IE; Pg : 1; Date : 12/10/07
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