Telangana threatens to get Army to clear city’s piled-up garbage

Hyderabad: On the eighth day of the strike by GHMC outsourcing staff, the Telangana government on Monday asked them to call off their agitation by Monday evening and report to their duties by Tuesday morning.

It threatened to cancel their job contracts and recruit new people if they failed to resume their duties by Tuesday morning. It also warned of bringing in the Army and police to control the agitation in case the protesting unions of 27,000 employees did not withdraw the strike or if they interrupted cleaning activities by other workers.

In fact there have been several incidents of striking staff either obstructing or attacking those who joined duties in the past one week. However, officials are clueless about how the Army can be deployed as it is under the Centre. Never in history, probably, has the Army been called out to clear garbage.

These warnings, however, failed to create any impact on the workers as there was no sign of the strike being called off by late on Monday. The striking staff, however, vowed to intensify their strike.