'Fire personnel forced to work 12 hours a day'

Nagpur: Rashtriya Nagpur Corporation Employees Association has sought municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe’s intervention to stop exploitation of fire personnel by extending their duty hours from the existing 8 hours to 12 hours a day.

In a letter to the civic chief, association’s general secretary Ranjan Nalode said chief fire officer Rajendra Uchake, through an oral order, is making personnel deployed at NMC’s fire and emergency services department headquarters and nine fire stations to work for 12 hours against the official duty of 8 hours per day.

The CFO’s oral diktat is against the service rules, said Nalode in the letter.

Nalode informed the NMC commissioner that the department is already reeling under severe manpower crunch as more than 50% posts are lying vacant. Not only personnel deployed at the headquarters, but those at fire stations are being forced to work for 12 hours a day thus putting them to mental and physical stress, he said.

On many occasions, TOI has highlighted the acute manpower crunch in the department. The staff crunch has also led to delay in opening of Trimurti Nagar fire station apart from preventing the department from opening new fire station which it had planned to open in South Nagpur.

Commenting on Nalode’s letter to Mundhe, Uchake defended the department’s move and stated that with the invoking of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the work of the fire department personnel has increased manifold. Apart from regular duties, the services of fire personnel are also being used for spraying disinfectants, he said. The recent heavy rain high alert issued by the Met office has also kept the fire personnel on their toes, he added.

Nalode said instead of extending working hours, the civic administration should speed up the process to fill all vacant posts in the fire department.