Mild tension prevailed at Sub-Collector’s office on Tuesday when striking contract municipal workers tried to lay siege to the Municipal Commissioner G. Veerapandian’s house on M.G. Road, demanding that the government revise their wages even as the heaps of garbage piled in colonies.
A minor scuffle ensued when the workers on their way to the Municipal Commissioner’s house were prevented by police personnel at the Sub-Collector’s office. The police took the protesters into preventive custody.
Andhra Pradesh Municipal Workers Union general secretary K. Ranganayakulu criticised the Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for resorting to repressive measures against the striking sanitation workers using police force. “It’s our democratic right to stage protest in support of our demands, but the government is trying to suppress us,” he alleged. He said that the Chief Minister, during election campaign in 2014, promised to regularise the services of those working on contract, basis later reneged on his promises.
He said the union has decided to intensify the agitation by staging protests in front of municipal corporation offices across the State on Wednesday.
“We will also organise similar protests at the district Collectorates on July 24. We will continue our struggle till our demands are conceded,” he said.
