Civic body hires 183 night rat killers for the suburbs to keep the menace the rodents pose to the city to a minimum
Civic body hires 183 night rat killers for the suburbs to keep the menace the rodents pose to the city to a minimum
The suburbs of the city need pipers to lure the rodents away, and the BMC plans to hire 183 of them to control their numbers. Called night rat killer (NRK), they will add to the existing army of 44 NRKs that are currently on the civic body's payroll to fight off rats in the island city. These civic employees with their self-explanatory designation are responsible for keeping the city free of the menace of rats. 
Dr Arun Bamne, insecticide officer, BMC, said, "The proposal has been tabled out to fill in 183 positions for NRKs in the suburbs to help curb the rat menace better."u00a0 In the last 5 years, the BMC has successfully eliminated 13,01,129 rats. As such, the numbers have been steadily declining in recent years. And the authorities do not want this trend to reverse, hence the new recruitments.u00a0
Costly affair
Since 2006 until now, rats have gnawed away a humongous hole worth Rs 8.5 crore in the BMC's pockets (see box). This was the money the body spent on trapping and killing rats across the city. On an average, it works out to Rs 1.7 crore a year.
Currently, the BMC has 134 rat trappers and 44 rat killers, all of the latter being deployed in the island city. The partiality springs from the fact that SoBo has more rats than the suburbs. Explaining why, Dr Amne said, "The city area has old buildings in narrow allies. People throw garbage out of their windows and it piles up in the gullies, where rats breed."
For the suburbs though, the corporation earlier used to hand out traps to residents. The rats so ensnared were sent to Haffkine Institute in Parel, which disposed of them (see box). But now, the BMC has opted for hiring more rat killers, as the traps used were expensive, the wire they were made of cost the civic body Rs 1,000-2.000 per cage.u00a0Dr G Ambe, executive health officer, BMC said, "A lot epidemics can be curbed if rats are eliminated. Leptospiris, caused mostly due to flooding, will also wane. And most importantly, the number of rats would decline in the city." Standing Committee Chairperson Rahul Shewale said, "With a vision to combat the health problems in the city due to the increasing number of rats, we want to clean them out completely. And with 183 NRKs, the suburbs would be better off."
Disposal
Nearly 400 rats are taken to the Haffkine Institute in Parel every day, where the rat destruction unit checks them for the flea index. In case of a lot of fleas, the BMC incinerates the rats hosting them, that is they are smouldered to keep the city free of epidemic and plague threats. "An incinerator unit is kept in the Haffkine Institute where the BMC carries out the incineration under the supervision of the Haffkine Institute," said Dr Bamne.
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Night Rat Killers
The monthly salary of a night rat killer is Rs 5,000. The rat killer gets a commission of 25 paise on each rat after the target of 30 rats is achieved, and unlike a trapper, a killer is required to kill the rodent on sight. The qualification for being an NRK is that a person should be physically fit and be able to lift at least 50 kg of weight. He should have passed Std IV. In Feb 2010, 33 night rat killers were appointed. The last appointment before that took place 20 years ago.
Eliminated
Number of rats exterminated by the BMC the last three years:
2008: 1,96,307
2009: 1,91,852u00a0
2010 : 3,48,000
Rs 5,000 Monthly salary of a night rat killer
13 lakh Number of rats that the BMC has killed in the last 5 years
Rs 8.5cr Amount spent by the BMC in killing rats since 2006
183 No of night rat killers that the BMC is set to hire to tackle the rodent menace
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