Municipal workers stage mega dharna

Vijayawada: Following the call given by the State committee of Municipal Workers Federation, under the aegis of Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) affiliated to the CPM, hundreds of municipal workers including sizable number of women staged massive dharna here on Tuesday demanding solution to their long-standing demands.

Municipal Workers Federation State general secretary K Umamaheswara Rao, CPM State executive member Ch Babu Rao, Donepudi Kasinath, N Ch Srinivas, Pravin, Jyoti Basu, David, women leaders Kamala, Tirupatamma, Lakshmi and others spoke. The leaders said that the Chief Minister was more interested in retaining his power rather than solving the problems of the workers. The promise to regularise contract workers was forgotten, they regretted.

The salaries of the municipal workers were not revised in the last four years, they said and demanded that the minimum salary should be increased to Rs 26,000. They recalled that several dozens of municipal workers died while on duty but no compensation was paid to their families.

They demanded accident insurance coverage for Rs 25 lakh for the workers. It is unjust that the pension and others benefits were cancelled to the families of the municipal workers.

The CITU leaders alleged that the contractors were being paid several crores of rupees in the name of CLAP but the drivers and the workers were not being paid minimal salaries.

They called upon the municipal workers across the State to participate in ‘Chalo Vijayawada’ programme on August 17 to bring their problems to the notice of the State government. Later, they submitted a memorandum to NTR District Collector S Dilli Rao.

Union leaders Stephen Babu, Dasu, Krishnaveni, Bujji, Martamma, Venkata Ramana, Brahmaiah, Sreenu, Narendra, Jaipal, Mahesh, Venu, Chinna and others also participated.