Hyderabad: Garbage piled up in the city on Wednesday as all the unions led by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Employees Union participated in the nation-wide strike bringing to a halt all the garbage transport vehicles.
None of the streets and main roads were swept. The city started to stink by evening as bins overflowed and garbage dumped in open spaces spread on to the roads and streets at many places.
GHMC additional commissioner L. Vandan Kumar said he has requested union leaders U. Gopal, Tipparti Yadaiah, K. Shankar and Vinay Kapoor to begin emergency services from Wednesday midnight, but there was no official word from the unions till late in the night.
The unions have called a two-day strike.
However, sources said GHMEU’s U. Gopal has responded positively to the request. The GHMEU is the majority and recognised union and if the workers, sweepers, drivers and cleaners affiliated to this union resume duties on Thursday, at least 50 per cent of the garbage can be cleared.
If the unions observe the strike for two days, 8,000 metric tonnes of garbage will accumulate on city streets.
The city generates about 4,000 metric tonnes of garbage every day. Corporation officials said they were confident of convincing the unions to resume garbage lifting and road sweeping operations, while continuing to boycott administrative work.
Hospital employees in Hyderabad join strike
Over 3,200 medical employees comprising nurses, ward boys and sweepers in government hospitals, went on a strike seeking abolition of contract system in the city. The Andhra Pradesh Medical Employees Union joined the strike with other trade unions as they are not getting paid by contractors as per guidelines issued by the state. Moreover, 11 sweepers at the Institute of Preventive Medicine, Narayanguda, started a hunger strike.
APMEU general secretary, M.S. Murthy said, “These sweepers have not been paid since 11 months. The government must understand that the contract system is not working.”
“The state says that sweepers must get Rs 7,020 as salary, but they get only Rs 4,030. Similarly, nurses are to be paid Rs 12,750 but receive Rs 7,700,” he said.