Swachh Bharat agents deprived of livelihood

Visakhapatnam: The agents of Swachh Bharat, who were entrusted to clean up the oil spillage in the dockyard and on the premises of the port have being deprived of their livelihood after Naval Dockyard denied them permission. The Eastern Naval Command headquarters has already given permission, said President of the Visakha Waste Oil Collectors Welfare Association Thota Vasudeva Rao while speaking to The Hans India here on Sunday.

He said that the association submitted a memorandum to the President on June 21 this year and it has been forwarded to the Ministry of Defence. A letter was also sent to Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamra on September 26 this year and the response has been positive.

“We will appeal to the new Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman who will be arriving here on Monday to commission a new vessel,’’ Vasudeva Rao added.

Around 50 families have been eking out their livelihood on cleaning up and collecting the spilled oil since the year 1977 and they were now on the streets as they were unable to find alternative means of livelihood, he lamented.

These cleaners of the spilled oil not only make little money but also keep the ocean clean from oil spillage and garbage, said a local activist J Ratnam.

“We are offering free services to the Naval Dockyard and Visakhapatnam Port Trust by removing the spilled or waste oil and garbage from the ocean surface, which would have cost these two organisations crores of rupees,” said Vasudeva Rao.

Rao said they started cleaning of spilled oil and collecting garbage from the port and dockyard waters in 1977 and the work began with C Channel of Navy Harbour.

But in 1993, the Eastern Naval Command officers imposed a ban on their entry citing security reasons.

On a request from the association, former District Collector Ajay Kallam wrote a letter to the ENC headquarters and oil collection resumed in 1994. Since then, they have been collecting the waste oil, cleaning up the garbage and clearing bushes along the channel bank without charging a rupee from the naval authorities. Subsequently, the ENC gave them a place to store the waste oil and parking place for 10 railway containers to transport the waste oil.

The ENC again issued orders in January 2015 asking them to vacate the place and hand it over to the Navy. In April 2015, they ENC denied permission to collect the waste oil.

The association submitted a memorandum to the Union Defence Ministry and requested the local MP Dr K Haribabu to intervene in the matter. On his request, the ENC resumed permission but the Naval Dockyard has been refusing to accord permission to resume oil collection, Vasudeva Rao said.

He said under the Prime Minister’s flagship programme ‘Swachh Bharat’, the defence ministry should utilise the services of wasted oil collectors for cleaning purposes.