Workers strike hits sanitation

Vizianagaram: The district headquarters Vizianagaram is looking like a dumping yard as the sanitation employees are on a strike for the pat 25 days. All the streets and vacant areas were filled up with garbage. Locals have been dumping the domestic waste into drainages and on to the roads. 

The sanitation employees are opposing the government decision of giving sanitation work to a third party on an outsourcing basis. With this decision, the workers are fearing about their job security and staging dharnas and keeping away from their duties. 

The recent rains turned the situation to worst from bad. The locals are supposed to carry their dust bins to dump the garbage in the municipal dustbins nearby their colonies but some of the people are not going far away and dumping the garbage near the colonies.

In all, 275 sanitary workers are working in 40 wards of Vizianagaram municipality for the past few years and recently their works were handed over to an outsourcing agency. They have been collecting the garbage from door-to-door. But now, they are keeping away from their duties for the past 25 days, Now the colonies and roads are being filled with mounds of garbage. 

MV Ramana, union leader of municipal employees (CITU), said that the government is violating labour laws and gave the sanitation work to an outsourcing agency.  P Ramakrishna, municipal chairman, said: “They need not worry about their jobs. We will ensure steps to protect their jobs. The outsourcing contractor can't violate labour laws. We are discussing with the workers to resume their duties”.