MCG to Hire 124 Extra Safai Workers in Zone 4

GURUGRAM: The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram will hire 124 additional sanitation workers for Zone 4 to strengthen road sweeping and garbage clearance, with the new workforce expected to be deployed for seven months from October.

The civic body has estimated the cost of the deployment at Rs 1.9 crore and has started the tender process to appoint an agency. The workers will be deployed across wards 1, 2, 3, 4, 35 and 36, besides DLF Phase 2 and 3, Sectors 5, 6, 21, 22A, 22B and 23A, among other areas.

An MCG official said Zone 4 currently has only 42 sanitation workers, which is insufficient to cover the areas under it. Other zones already have more than 100 sanitation workers each. The tender is meant to close that gap with a time-bound agency contract rather than an immediate permanent recruitment drive.

Shortages, penalties and citywide demand

The move comes amid repeated concerns over sanitation manpower and service delivery. In July, the civic body imposed a penalty of more than Rs 5.3 lakh on a private contractor after inspections found shortages of sanitation workers and tractor-trolleys in Zone 4. The contractor was required to deploy 70 workers and 10 tractor-trolleys daily, but continuous deficiencies were recorded.

MCG has also faced scrutiny over its overall sanitation workforce. Councillors have flagged inadequate manpower in several wards. In August, sanitation workers went on a 37-day strike over demands including regularisation of contractual employees, disrupting garbage clearance for several days. At a recent meeting chaired by Haryana Urban Local Bodies minister Vipul Goel, Mayor Raj Rani Malhotra sought additional sanitation staff for the city and said Gurugram needs at least 3,000 more sanitation workers. The minister assured that the requirement would be addressed.

For households in the listed wards and DLF phases, the October start date matters more than the tender paperwork. Zone 4's present roster of 42 workers cannot match the sweeping and lift cycles that denser zones already run with three-digit staffing. The seven-month window gives MCG a chance to test whether contracted manpower can hold road and collection standards without repeating the July shortfall pattern that triggered the Rs 5.3 lakh penalty.

The agency that wins the tender will be judged on whether those 124 workers actually report on the beat, not only on paper. Residents in Sectors 21 to 23A and the older wards already know what thin staffing looks like after the August strike left piles on the roadside. MCG's own comparison with other zones, each running more than 100 workers, is the clearest admission that Zone 4 has been under-served.