Twenty sanitary workers with city corpn get insurance cover

Coimbatore: The city corporation has introduced an accident insurance scheme for 20 sanitary workers, who clean manholes in the central zone.

The beneficiaries would receive up to Rs 10 lakh in case of fatal accidents and up to Rs 1 lakh for non-fatal accidents. This is in addition to the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojna that provides a life cover of Rs 2 lakh.

Corporation commissioner J Sravan Kumar passed the order to include the workers under the scheme a week ago, said a corporation official. “Though the workers are using machines to clean manholes, there is a high chance of them inhaling toxic gases,” he said.

Forty-five sanitary workers are deployed to clean manholes in the city. “The civic body paid the annual premium of Rs 6,000 for the 20 workers covered under the scheme. We have initiated the process to include the others as well,” the official told TOI.

“The government had directed all local bodies to bring sanitary workers under insurance cover. All sanitary workers in Kerala and Karnataka have insurance cover, while their counterparts in Tamil Nadu were not included until recently,” said president of Social Justice Party N Pannerselvam. “By default, all uniformed officials have insurance and get risk allowance. After a long struggle, sanitary workers have been included in the scheme. But they are yet to get risk allowance,” he added.

Source: The Times of India