The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) sanitation works in the city were badly affected following the indefinite strike launched by the contract and outsourced workers for the second day on Sunday.
The streets and roads in most parts of the city remained unswept and garbage piled all over after the workers continued their agitation seeking a hike in wages and other benefits.
The State-wide agitation badly affected the city core areas in particular, with nearly 25,000 workers here abstaining from their assigned tasks. The outsourced and contract workers affiliated to different unions did not take up works related to sweeping and garbage lifting and with even drivers joining the strike, shifting of garbage remained unattended to.
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On an average, nearly 4,000 metric tonnes (MT) of garbage is lifted from the streets and roads and the union leaders said the city was littered with about 8,000 MT of refuse and garbage. The general secretary of Bhagyanagar Municipal Employees’ Union, Vinay Kapoor, said the city would stink badly if the government failed to resolve the issue and agree to the demand of hiking wages from Rs. 6,500 to Rs. 16,500 immediately.
“By tomorrow, the city would have nearly 12,000 MT of garbage lying all over,” he said.
According to GHMC officials, the workforce that went on strike included sanitation workers, malaria workers, drivers and other associated staff.
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“We are taking contingency steps to meet the situation and roping in vehicles to shift the garbage. We will seek police help where required if the workers try to stop our efforts,” said an official.
Additional Commissioner (Health & Sanitation) L. Vandan Kumar said the civic body was making arrangements to get a vehicle each for every ward to tackle the situation emerging from the strike. GHMC Commissioner Somesh Kumar on Saturday held a tele-conference with the senior officials, zonal and deputy commissioners for the contingency measures and directed for immediate measures to ensure that garbage gets lifted.
The officials were also instructed to coordinate with the corporators and ward members to work out local situations and directions were issued to book cases against those trying to disrupt sanitation initiatives and work at the offices.
GHMC Commissioner reviews situation
The GHMC Commissioner visited different parts of the city and monitored the sanitation works and garbage lifting operations in view of the ongoing strike by the contract workers, according to a press release