In order to maintain cleanliness in Shimla, the city has been divided into six wards. Each ward is being supervised by Sanitary Inspector. There are 38 Sanitary-Jamadars to supervise their respective beats. There are 456 sanctioned posts of Safai-Karamcharies, out of which 392 posts are filled up and 64 are lying vacant. Besides, 56 Safai-Karamcharies have been engaged on daily basis & 11 on contract basis for cleansing operation. There are two posts of Chief Sanitary Inspectors for overall supervision of the city. The Corporation Health Officer looks after the overall activities of the health department.
To collect the city waste 206 Dumper Containers have been placed in different parts of the city including N.A.C.’s areas i.e. Totu, Kasumpti & Dhalli. For areas which are inaccessible by Dumper Placers/Tata Mobile, for waste collection, 388 No. of Manual Dust Bins have been placed in different localities. The waste from these dustbins is lifted manually to the nearest dumper container/Tipper deployed for final disposal to the Bio-Conversion plant installed at Darni-ka-Bagicha, Lalpani, Shimla. For lifting of Dumper containers & waste from manual dust bins 10 No. of Dumper Placers, 6 No. of Tippers & a Tata Mobile is deployed so that the waste collected from the city is carried to the Bio-Conversion plant for further processing scientifically. There is one water tanker deployed for the purpose of washing the roads &drains etc. The Dumper Placers are so designed that these lift the covered dumper containers (with lid) hydraulically for further transfer of waste to the Bio-Conversion Plant site. The tippers while carrying the waste are covered with tarpal.
The sweeping/Sanitation work starts from 6.30 A.M. to 11.30 A.M. in the morning & 3.00 P.M. to 6.00 P.M. in the evening. But due to littering on opening of shops, offices, hotels and Restaurants etc. the sweeping/sanitation work has to be carried out again in some parts of the city which leads some public inconvenience. The lifting of dumper container by dumper placers and manual dustbins by tippers is also carried out between 5:30 AM to 8:30 AM in general. However some dumpers need to be replaced which are filled up after the morning sweeping. Moreover there is delay in lifting the dumpers which are placed at far-flung areas like Mashobra, Dhalli, Kasumpti and Tutu etc. In case of any complaint by public, VIP functions the containers need to be transported at odd hours.
During summer season when the Shimla town is flooded with tourists, special sanitation campaigns were launched and the hillsides, drains & nallahs etc. were got cleared. People were also made aware about the general cleanliness and they were advised not to through the waste here and there but to deposit the same in the nearest dumper container/dustbin.
The door to door garbage collection scheme which was launched in Jan. 1999 also survived in some of the Municipal wards in the last year, purely as a resident friendly scheme through NGOs. From 01-11-03 the scheme has been implemented in different wards by Municipal Corporation Shimla, authorizing six NGOs under the direction of Hon’ble High Court of H.P.
The Sanitary Inspector of the concerned area inspects the Hotels, Restaurants, Dhabas and other eatable shops from the sanitary point of view. Besides, if any stale eatables and over ripe fruits are found displaced for sale, the same are destroyed on the spot by them.