This corporator wields broom every morning to keep his ward clean

Dressed in track suit and shoes, with a broomstick in hand, this corporator is winning hearts of local residents of his ward. The day starts with a difference for this Ward 10 Corporator M Sunil, who has dedicated one hour of his busy schedule to sweep roads.

Faced with severe shortage of pourakarmikas and government yet to take call on recruiting additional pourakarmikas, he decided to sweep roads on his own to reduce the burden on pourakarmikas, and also to ensure cleanliness.

The population of the ward is around 12,000 and 23 pourakarmikas have been assigned for cleaning work in his ward, out of which atleast two-three will be on leave every day. His request for 10 more pourakamikas is pending for past two years. There are 652 permanent staff, while 1645 through out sourcing are engage in cleaning and waste collection drive.

For the past eight days Sunil, a LLB Graduate sweeps in areas surrounding Chamundivana upto to Ramalingeshwara Temple including parks and other areas inn the neighbourhood. The local residents have begun to join hands with him by helping him to collect the garbage and dump to dustbins.

'Compared to the population of the city, the strength of pourakarmikas is very less. With city being awarded as cleanest city , more number of pourakarmikas are required to keep the city clean . We cant pressurize pourakarmikas to do more work . Until five more persons are appointed to my ward, I will continue the work,' adds Sunil, who has been elected for first time.

Pourakarmika Muniya said: 'The initiative of Corporator has brought happiness amongst us. With shortage of manual labour there was extra pressure on us to sweep roads. Slowly residents also joining hands with Corporator, which has helped us.'

Resident Vanajalakshmi said: 'I was surprised to see our Corporator sweeping the road. With cleanliness we can achieve higher goals. He advises us to reduce the use of plastic, and keep the city clean.'

This apart he has taken initiatives to increase green cover in the ward. He has planted more than 60 saplings, and the guards for trees has been sponsored by a local businessman. Distribution of cloth bags, filling potholes with mud, removing overgrown shrubs, visiting Chamundi Hills once a month and cleaning garbage there are some his contributions towards making a Swacch Bharath.