VASCO
Describing labourers, daily wage workers and garbage collectors attached to Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) as frontline Covid warriors, New Vaddem based social activist Vinod Kinlekar on Wednesday requested the MMC to provide safety gears to these workers.
Speaking to reporters, Kinlekar said he was shocked to see garbage collectors emptying collecting dry and wet garbage from houses into their waste bins with bare hands.
“The MMC should have some reserve Covid fund for the workers who risk their lives to ensure comfort to citizens amid the pandemic.”
“These people are working with bare hands and are exposing themselves to risk. Secondly, they don’t have masks, shields or gloves and as such, they can be prone to contracting Covid infection, because they do not know the Covid status of the house they visit.”
“Besides, there is also a chance that the garbage collector himself may be an asymptomatic carrier and the person taking back the garbage bucket from the garbage collector could be at risk as well,” said Kinlekar.
“The MMC should make available a reserve “Covid Fund” for these Covid warriors and provide them with gloves, face shields, masks and pocket sanitisers. The MMC can also take care of their medical expenses in case these persons test positive.”
“The Covid fund can also be utilised for other things like sanitisation of wards, etc. This will ensure that these grass roots workers are safe and minimise the chance of Covid infection being spread from people to them and vice versa,” Kinlekar added.
