Irregular waste collection from parts of Udhagamandalam town has led people to dump waste in public spaces.
Residents of Fern Hill and Elk Hill alleged that the municipality’s garbage collection vehicles had failed to turn up at their localities for around a week. “As there are no garbage bins within the town either, people have nowhere left to discard their garbage and so throw it on the road,” said a resident of Fern Hill in Udhagamandalam.
The problem with waste collection has occurred almost at the same time when temporary municipal staff employed by private contractors to collect garbage staged a protest outside the municipal office a few days ago demanding their salaries.
A conservancy worker who spoke to The Hindu said that the staff were yet to receive two months’ salary, and that they had struck work for a few days to put pressure on the municipality to speak to the contractor and get their salaries paid.
After talks were held between the conservancy workers and the municipality, a compromise was reached, officials said, with the contractor agreeing to release a third of the salary due to the staff by the end of the week.
Official sources said that the problem of non-payment of wages to temporary staff was consistent in all the municipalities in the district.
When contacted, R. Saraswati, Udhagamandalam Municipality (UMC) Commissioner, said that it was the duty of the contractors to pay the wages of the staff that they employ. “They had bid for tenders to carry out this work, but are now claiming that they are unable to pay their salaries. However, we have had talks with the contractors, who have agreed to pay a portion of the salaries due to the conservancy workers,” said Ms. Sarawati.
