Coimbatore corporation deployed workers to remove the sand accumulated near median and edges on select roads ahead of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami visit to Coimbatore.

Incidentally, these were roads maintained by either the state highways or national highways departments.

Around 10 to 20 workers were deployed on Podanur Road, Nanjundapuram Road at Athupalam, Pollachi Road, Avinashi Road near the airport, Trichy Road, Oppanakara Street, Mettupalayam Road and a few others on October 24 and 25.

Corporation officials said jurisdiction did not matter and the work was part of responsibility ahead of the Chief Minister’s visit.

It was a humongous task, given the low strength of corporation workers, an official admitted. There were 2,034 contract workers and 2,300 permanent workers to clean the 100 wards.

The civic body would need at least another 2,000 workers if it were to go by the State Government’s order stipulating three workers for every 250 hours or a km road.

The corporation had to deploy machines to automate the sand-clearing work, which proved to be a disaster. The Corporation had bought four machines for each zone when it then had just four zones. It was now five after it annexed 11 added areas. The machines soon became faulty and have been lying idle for the last seven to eight years.

Officials said that even if the corporation were to use the machines, it would not be of much help because it would still have to deploy workers and lorries to carry the sand.

Even in the special deployment that the Corporation made ahead of the Chief Minister’s visit, it was at the cost of regular work being done in respective wards.