NGOs finding it difficult to achieve BMC’s daily target of killing rats
The insecticide department under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is finding it difficult to get Non Government organisations (NGOs) who can kill 100 rats in a day.Though the civic body pays them Rs 18 for each rat killing, comparatively more than the mantralaya appointed rat killing contractor.
The former revenue minister Eknath Khadse, recently exposed the scam in rat killing contract. As per his allegations 3.19 lakhs rats were killed in Mantralaya in seven days that means more than 45,000 rats been killed in a day. The contractor was paid one rupee fifty paise for killing every rat .
According to Doctor Rajan Naringrekar, the insecticide officer in BMC, out of the 24 wardsm the BMC has managed to out source NGOs in only five wards for killing rats, these are mainly Bhandup, Chembur, Kurla and others.
The set condition seems to be one of the reasons for the poor response from NGOs. However, they are now planning to once again invite NGOs from across Mumbai to for volunteering to rats. "Many non profit organisations have individuals who are in search of jobs, its the best work they can take up and earn even good money out of it. We will be soon appealing to the NGOs to participate more willingly," said Naringrekar.
At present, BMC has 136 staff personnel for the day time shift to kill rats and has 27 employees for night shift. Naringrekar added, "There is no set target for day time workers to kill rats but for night staff they have to kill at least 30 rats every night. Also, if the employee does a good job than they are transferred to day shift. Eventually, the number of employees reduces from the night shift. Hence, we want more NGOs to be appointed to continue the activity more efficiently."
The BMC has set a target for the NGOs to kill 100 rats per day. "Even BMC workers are asked to kill 30 rats per night, similarly there has to be target for NGOs too. If BMC does not fix a target then any NGO will kill ten to twenty rats only and take the money. To control rat menace effectively the target condition has to be followed diligently."