Scores of sanitary workers are working round the clock in a massive clean-up operation in Old Guntur for the last 15 days without proper safety net. The personnel drafted from other municipalities are risking their lives by working without the mandatory gloves and boots. Even as a barrage of municipal officials keep making rounds to inspect the work relating to de-sludging open drains, no one has so far cared about the welfare of the personnel.
The tragic death of a sanitary worker after falling into a manhole in Vijayawada on Tuesday is a grim reminder of the dangerous circumstances in which the workers perform their duties.
More than 200 sanitary personnel, including contract employees, have been deputed from the Tenali, the Chilakaluripet and the Bapatla municipalities to help the GMC in the operation.
“Most of the workers are working in most unhygienic conditions. With bare hands and chappals, they are working continuously in the open sun. From de-silting to collection of silt and transporting it in push carts, the workers are exposed to all kinds of infections,’’ said CPI-affiliated trade union secretary K. Malyadri.
The GMC has about 400 permanent workers and 1,100 contract employees. Most permanent workers are given the basic safety kit like gloves and boots but there is no provision to supply them to the contract employees. The employees however have access to the ESI hospital.
Responding to the issue, Municipal Health Officer Sobha Rani said medical kits containing basic medicines to cope up with weakness and fevers were being given to the workers. She also said the GMC would soon conduct a medical camp for them.
