Visakhapatnam: GVMC workers go on indefinite strike
Sanitation staff staging a protest in Visakhapatnam on Monday
Visakhapatnam: With an army of corporation outsourcing staff stepping forward to carry out an indefinite strike, the sanitation maintenance in the city is going to take a huge hit in the coming days.
Workers and outsourcing staff engaged in public health, engineering and water supply departments of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) have gone on an indefinite strike from Monday as the government has been brushing their demands aside for a long time now.
This is going to leave a severe impact on sanitation maintenance in the city.
As a part of their demands, the CITU is demanding that a health allowance of Rs 6,000 and a salary of Rs 21,000 be provided to contract and outsourcing workers. Schemes like Amma Vodi should be applied for the children of the outsourcing staff, vacancies should be filled and retirement benefits be provided with immediate effect are included in the demand list.
Earlier, trade union leaders held discussions several times with the State Municipal Director Praveen Kumar and GVMC Commissioner G Lakshmisha. As no progress was made with regards to their repeated demands, the decision to take up indefinite strike was made.
Speaking to The Hans India, CITU State Municipal Workers and Employees Federation honorary president P Venkata Reddy said it will not be accepted under any circumstances if the salaries and health allowances of the employees were reduced. He warned that the strike would continue until the government resolved their issues.
While nearly 7,000 workers are working in the public health and engineering department under GVMC, only 1,000 of them fall under the category of permanent employees.
Boycotting their duties is certainly going to leave a severe impact on the services like sanitation maintenance and water supply in the city in the coming days. As such, the sanitation maintenance in parts of the city is bad and the situation is only going to become worse with the indefinite strike followed by rains. However, until the situation gets better, and to tackle staff crunch, the GVMC is planning for alternative arrangements.