Vijayawada: Sanitary staff to receive Rs 6,000 health allowance

Vijayawada: The state government issued orders (GO No:233) for payment of Rs 6,000 Occupational Health Allowance (OHA) to municipal sanitary workers.

As a result of the orders, over 43,000 municipal sanitary workers will get wage of Rs 21,000 per month, including Rs 15,000 wage and Rs 6,000 occupational health allowance.

It may be recalled that the municipal outsourced and contract sanitation workers observed a strike demanding payment of OHA earlier this month. Following the deterioration of sanitary conditions, the state government reacted immediately and appointed a high power committee to resolve the issue of sanitary workers.

The committee chaired by minister for municipal administration Audimulapu Suresh decided to pay the OHA of Rs 6,000 along with Rs 15,000 monthly wage.

Earlier, the sanitary staff used to get Rs 3,000 as OHA in addition to their monthly wages.

The sanitary staff ended their agitation when the government accepted their demand for payment of OHA. With the direction of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, minister for municipal administration A Suresh and minister for education Botcha Satyanarayana discussed with the Joint Action Committee leaders and resolved the issue by promising to solve majority of the demands of agitating sanitary staff.