As strike enters day 7, VMC counters with temporary workers
Municipal contract workers stage protest in front of mayor Koneru Sridhar's house at Patamata in Vijayawada on Thursday. (Photo: DC)
VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada Municipal Corporation’s contract workers, who launched an indefinite strike a week ago, are fuming at ruling party politicos for diluting the strike and following the municipal commissioner G. Veerapandian.
Municipal workers staged a protest at Mayor Koneru Sreedhar’s house as their strike entered its seventh day on Thursday. “We are demanding a permanent solution for the entire problem. However, it seems that the ruling party politicos are looking for alternate trials instead of ending the impasse,” said municipal workers who staged a protest at the mayor’s residence over the negligence of workers’ welfare.
Meanwhile, to keep the city clean, municipal commissioner G. Veerapandian has deployed temporary workers to clear the overflowing garbage bins and has called in NCC students under the Swachh Bharat programme to clean the city roads. However, the government, so far, has shown no intention to find out a solution by inviting Union leaders for talks regarding the strike.
Instead, it has deployed temporary staff to clear the piled up garbage in the city. “Nearly 300 workers have been deployed till now and many will be added to the list in coming days to perform sanitation duties and other halted works,” said a source inside the civic body.
As a result, the protesting permanent staff, on Wednesday, tried to stop the temporary workers hired by the civic body from performing their duties. “The government should find a way out of the impasse instead of causing a confrontation among workers,” said AP Municipal Workers’ union general secretary Asula Ranganayakulu, requesting the state government to end the strike peacefully by finding a solution soon.
Meanwhile, lamenting politicians’ intervention, Mr Ranganayakulu said, “It is really painful for all workers that the ruling party political leaders are showing no sign of pity for workers, who are waiting for the salary hikes for many years.” According to Municipal Worker’s Joint Action Committee, it is learnt that 314 cases have been booked against the workers across the state. “We will block the Chief Minister’s camp office on Friday, if the corporation acts at a snail’s pace,” said Mr Ranganayakulu, describing their further course of action.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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