A recent study conducted after the implementation of the Intelligent Solid Waste Management System (ISWMS) by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has revealed that approximately 20% of sanitation workers are absent from work daily. The absenteeism, identified through the ISWMS, is hindering the city’s cleanliness initiatives.
The PMC solid waste management department adopted ISWMS in December 2023 to monitor waste collection, transportation, and sanitation activities. With an investment of ₹17 crore, the system was integrated into the Local Body Tax (LBT) office to track employee attendance across the city.
The decision to implement ISWMS arose when it was discovered that a significant number of employees in each ward office were receiving salaries without actively contributing to their duties. In response, PMC equipped 700 waste transport vehicles with GPS and radio frequency identification tags, along with providing devices to 10,000 sanitation workers.
The system allows the municipal corporation to receive ward-by-ward data on sanitation worker attendance. The study found that around 20% of employees are absent from work daily, posing challenges to cleanliness efforts in various locations.
To address this issue, PMC has decided to link salaries to ISWMS, eliminating manual intervention in attendance tracking. In a recent meeting, ward officers, sanitation inspectors (SI), and deputy sanitation inspectors were directed to enhance cleanliness in their respective areas. The corporation is now strategizing to determine the optimal number of workers required in different parts of the city to ensure efficient cleaning tasks using ISWMS.
