AP government, VMC chief P Narayana mull to replace striking workers

According to highly placed sources, city mayor Koneru Sreedhar and municipal commissioner G. Veerapandian are exploring possibilities of recruiting new staff instead of hiking salaries to Rs 15,432 for contract workers, who are also hired by a manpower agency in the city.

The civic body, which is providing employment to more than 3,000 contract employees in various sections like public health, engineering and horticulture, is going to replace them with new faces soon after the state government approves the proposals.

According to sources in corporation, both mayor and commissioner are miffed with the municipal workers for not calling off their strike even after the government accepted to hike the salary from

Rs 8,300 to Rs 10,300, despite a potential financial burden of Rs 55 crore per year.

The proposal regarding this was hinted by the standing committee recently. When contacted, mayor Koneru Sreedhar said that the civic body is going to face an extra burden of Rs 55 crore per year if the salaries are hiked by Rs 2,000.

“We are ready to carry the burden, but they still are unhappy. In addition to that, union leaders are misguiding the workers and making them obstruct other workers who are attending the duties,” said Mr Sreedhar.

“With this move, more than 3,000 workers will be removed immediately from the duties. And the new workers will work for municipal corporation under the recruited manpower agency,” added the Mayor.

The mayor and the commissioner discussed recruiting new staff with municipal minister P. Narayana, instead of hiking the salaries of the hired contract workers as per demands.

However, municipal minister P. Narayana, keen on this proposal, is expected to approve it. Salaries of new workers will range from Rs 8,000 to Rs 8,500.