Vijayawada: CPM demands payment of pending salaries to contract civic workers

Vijayawada: CPM State leader Ch Baburao has demanded the State government to immediately release the pending salaries to the municipal contract workers in the State. He lamented that the State government did not pay salaries till April 13 for the celebration of Ugadi festival. Baburao addressed the contract municipal workers in Ajit Singh Nagar on Tuesday.

Several hundred municipal contract workers attended the meeting. He said that the State government had failed to fulfil the promise of paying salaries on the first of every month. He recalled that the municipal workers rendered invaluable services to the people during the pandemic, but the State government has not paid salaries for seven months.

He added that each worker is yet to get Rs 42,000 salary pending for the last seven months. He said that the State government has done felicitation and praises to the services of municipal contract workers but not paying salaries regularly.

Baburao questioned as to how the poor workers live without salaries when they were not paid salaries regularly. He said that the poor workers had been facing many hardships to live with the increasing prices of essential commodities.

"They had to pay the house rents, school fees to children, payment of power bills regularly." He said that most of the workers belong to weaker sections and felt that it is not correct to delay the payment of salaries. He said that the government is paying honorary payment to the ministers, the MLAs, the MLCs and others but not paying salaries to the contract workers.