Municipal staff protests against privatisation move

Ongole: The municipal employees in the Prakasam district continued their protest against the GO No 279 and other problems for the fourth consecutive day.

The Andhra Pradesh Municipal Employees Federation in association with the CITU and AITUC organised a rally and begging with the workers in Ongole town from the municipal corporation office to the new market.

The union working secretary, Sriram Srinivasa Rao and president K Samrajyam, said that while the usage of ‘use and throw material’ was increased in the state, the officials and public representatives were using the municipal staff for personal works to increase burden on the remaining.

With the GO 279 the government would privatise the services of the sanitation and impose user charges. CITU district secretary Chikati Srinivasa Rao said that the workers would lose job protection and the GO was benefitting the corporate agencies.

He asked the public to compare the status of sanitation in the government hospitals and other places where the agencies were working to maintain sanitation before supporting the GO 279.

In Kandukur, the municipal employees laid siege to the municipal corporation office and protested for the cancellation of the GO 279. Manoja, the division CITU secretary said that the government was not paying any charges even for the soaps and chappals. She said that the GO 279 would help the contractors and reduce the rights of the workers and demanded for the scrapping of the order immediately.