Leaders of the YSRC and Left parties on Friday came down heavily on the government for what they called “injustice” being meted out to municipal employees and workers who had been on strike for a fortnight.
Meanwhile, the striking workers took out a rally here. Expressing solidarity with the workers, YSRC MLAs Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy and P. Anil Kumar Yadav said the government would have to pay a heavy penalty if it failed to take immediate steps to solve the workers’ problems.
They said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had handled the anganwadi workers’ issue during his previous tenure on similar lines, and he paid a heavy price for it by losing power. “Nobody can survive if injustice is done to workers,” they said.
Leaders of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) also took part in the demonstration. CPM leaders M. Venkateswarlu and K. Srinivasulu spoke.
CITU organises rally
CITU organised a massive rally in Srikakulam on Friday asking the government to accept the demands of municipal workers immediately and enhance their salaries. CITU general secretary D. Govinda Rao, Joint Action committee of Municipal workers Associations leader K. Srinivas said that the strike would continue if the government failed to fix minimum salary of Rs.15,432 to each worker. They alleged that the government had ignored all its election promises and failed to resolve the pending issues. They also sought land pattas and houses for the municipal workers apart from other facilities such as provident fund and regularisation of contract workers. Labour Minister K.Atchannaidu, who interacted with the CITU leaders, assured that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu would look into their grievances after completion of Pushkarams.
Garbage uncleared
Door-to-door collection of garbage and segregation of organic and inorganic waste are severely affected in the city in view of the ongoing indefinite strike by municipal workers, which entered the 15th day on Friday.
With the help of over 75 workers provided by the district administration, 190-odd workers are clearing the garbage from arterial roads, Municipal Chief Engineer Dasari Srinivasa Rao told The Hindu . About 20 per cent of the 70 tonnes of garbage generated each day in the city remained uncleared in view of the strike, he added.
“Compared to other cities, garbage clearance has not been affected very badly here as the civic authorities have hired 18 tractors from private players for the purpose. They vehicles are fully on the job of clearing accumulated garbage in important junctions,” he said, admitting that door-to-door collection of garbage and segregation of organic and inorganic waste was hampered in the wake of the strike.