BMC plans to completely outsource sanitation work

Bhubaneswar: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to privatise sanitation services fully across the city, with a proposal sent to the state govt to phase out its own sanitation workforce from the remaining three wards still handled by regular staff. Out of the 67 wards, 64 are currently serviced through private agencies, while three wards still have sanitation work carried out by the BMC’s own employees.

If approved, all 67 wards will be managed by specialised private agencies on a daily basis, BMC officials said.

The BMC additional commissioner, Kailash Chandra Dash, said the corporation has written to the govt seeking permission to privatise sanitation work in the last three remaining wards. “We saw earlier that after private agencies took over the wards, there was a professional approach to sanitisation. Private agency could micro-manage sanitation and ground employees both,” Dash said.

He clarified that the move would not involve disengaging BMC’s regular sanitation workers or attaching them to private agencies. “We rather will use their services in different BMC ward offices,” he said.

Officials said the shift is aimed at improving professionalism and effectiveness in addressing daily sanitation issues, including sweeping, waste collection and segregation.

The BMC officials said seven private agencies are presently engaged across different wards to handle manual and mechanical sweeping, door-to-door waste collection and segregation. Each agency deploys roughly 1,000 sanitation workers, forming the bulk of the city’s sanitation workforce.

At present, the total strength of sanitation workers engaged in Bhubaneswar’s sanitation system is around 7,000, officials said.

The corporation plans to redeploy the regular sanitation staff from the three wards proposed for privatisation to other areas where manpower is needed. “We have requirement of manpower in our ward offices,” an official said.

The BMC intends to use the redeployed workers for daily cleaning and housekeeping at its city health office and the offices of zonal deputy commissioners, officials said.