Vehicular traffic on the NH-36 was disrupted for four hours, as hundreds of anganwadis, Aasha, mid-day meal, and construction workers, affiliated to the CITU, squatted on the road on Monday as part of the ‘Chalo Collectorate’ programme to press for their demands. The protest continued from 10.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. They also staged a sit-in in front of the Collectorate too, alleging that the government officials were adopting an indifferent attitude while dealing with their genuine demands.
CITU State vice-president Ch. Narasinga Rao, who led the demonstration, said that though four jute and eight ferro-alloy units had been closed indefinitely, rendering 12,000 workers jobless, the district administration had not been taking measures to reopen them.
Further, the government had not settled mid-day meal workers’ arrears that mounted to Rs. 13 crore, salaries of aganwadis and Aasha workers for the past four to six months and also not paid building rents of anganwadi centres. “The government had instructed Treasury not to settle bills,” Mr. Narasinga Rao said and alleged that the grants were being diverted for capital Amaravati. The building workers too were affected due to shortage of sand, he said.
There was an exchange of words between Collector M.M. Nayak and CITU leaders when the latter went to submit a memorandum to the former. The Collector chided them for organising protests now and then and disrupting public life. Following which, T.V. Ramana, CITU district general secretary, reminded him of his inaction despite staging protests and submission of memorandums to him in the past two months. As there was no positive response over settlement of salary bills from the Collector, CITU has decided to go on an indefinite fast from November 15.
