Hyderabad: The Telangana government hiked the salaries of GHMC sanitary staff and drivers who returned to work by Thursday by 47.05 per cent.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who approved the pay hike after a meeting with officials, directed GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar to sack employees who have not resumed duty. He also asked Mr Kumar to remove staff who resorted to violence during the agitation.
The salary for sanitary staff has been increased from Rs 8,500 to Rs 12,500 a month and for drivers from Rs 10,200 to Rs 15,000.
The CM’s office said 24,000 GHMC staff would benefit. The hike is in line with Mr Rao’s assurances during the Swachh Hyderabad initiative recently.
The decision pertains only to GHMC staff, and no decision has been taken on the municipal staff in the districts.
Mr Rao said the hike of 47.05 per cent was greater than the 43 per cent given to government employees and 44 per cent for RTC employees. GHMC staff unions said they would respond on Friday.
Bhagyanagar Municipal Sangh president A. Shankar alleged that Mr Rao was resorting to ‘divide and rule’ policy to dilute the agitation.
He said the hike was confined to GHMC staff and that the government had failed to give any clarity on salaries for municipal staff in districts, who are also on strike since July 6.
Meanwhile, Left parties have called a “Telangana bandh” in support of the strike. Earlier in the day, the GHMC said 95 per cent of its workers were back on duty. Mr Kumar said that until 4 pm, 3783.40 metric tons of garbage had been lifted and 385 trips made to dump it at the Jawaharnagar yard.
He said 28 drivers and five sanitation field assistants were removed from duty for staying away from work without intimation. “Almost 95 per cent of the outsourcing staff has joined and the rest are unable to join duty owing to other reasons.”
Elsewhere, the government drew up with contingency plan to tackle strikes in civic bodies. With regard to municipal bodies, the government wants to cancel the contracts of contractors whose staff go on strike, recruiting healthy retired personnel and hiring drivers from other wings.
Measures to deal with strikes by water board staff include: Maintaining sufficient water in tanks; deploy private tankers; seeking police protection or engaging private personnel to secure water supply installations.
