Sanitation workers seek job protection

Vijayawada (NTR District): Demanding job protection to sanitation workers of the capital region, MLC KS Lakshmana Rao, CPM leader Ch Babu Rao and Sanitation Workers Association honorary president M Ravi submitted a memorandum to Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) Commissioner Vivek Yadav at CRDA office here on Monday.

The MLC informed the Commissioner that sanitation workers should be allowed to continue in jobs from January also. The MLC and the CPM leader apprised the Commissioner that sanitation workers have been working in 29 villages of the capital region since 2017. They said that contract agency tender period would be expiring by the end of December and appealed to the Commissioner to call for fresh tenders to allow the sanitation workers to continue in the jobs.

They said that the poor sanitation workers would lose their livelihood if they were removed from their jobs. Moreover, if the sanitation workers were removed, the garbage would pile up in the villages of the capital region, they pointed out. They appealed to the Commissioner to convince the government to sanction funds to provide job guarantee to the sanitation workers.

MLC Lakshmana Rao said that sanitation workers, who were denied pensions on the pretext that they were employees, should be given pensions. They thanked the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and CRDA officials for the payment of salaries on December 23 as per their promise.