Municipal commissioner Manoj Kumar is unconvinced that the corporation deserves a rating that it had awarded itself for its cleanliness service in an internal assessment ahead of Swachh Survekshan scheduled in January.

Unimpressed by the RMC health section’s claims of collecting garbage on a day-to-day basis from 90 per cent houses under 53 wards, Kumar on Sunday ordered that the salaries of the ward supervisors would be withheld till they met the target.

The health section had also claimed that around 500-550 tonnes of trash were collected daily from the households.

There are around 85 ward supervisors in RMC who are responsible for ensuring door-to-door garbage collection, picking up trash from public places and cleaning drains.

Supervisors are also supposed to report to their immediate boss about people who violate municipal rules and areas that need immediate cleaning.

A ward supervisor confirmed the development.

“On Friday, the municipal commissioner had visited several localities under Ward 18. He had inspected garbage collection work and taken feedback from people. In some of the wards, supervisors are indeed submitting wrong reports about daily collection of garbage from households. But those who are working with honesty, have nothing to worry,” the ward supervisor said on the condition of anonymity.

Another supervisor, however, admitted that meeting the 90 per cent trash collection target was impossible owing to the lack of infrastructure.

“There is lack of safai workers and garbage vans, which make our work all the more difficult,” the supervisor added.

The municipal commissioner has also asked the health section to submit the daily route plan in all wards for strict monitoring of the collection and cleaning work.

Now every RMC waste collection van on duty will play jingles to let people know that the safai workers are present in their area.