With municipal employees in Andhra going on strike, the sanitation situation in the state is deteriorating.
The strike has been on for a week now, and the workers have put forward 13 demands. The primary demands are for equal pay for equal work and giving permanent positions to outsourced employees.
In Vijaywada, Anganwadi workers, municipal workers and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan staff continued protests on 1 January 2024. The Vijaywada Municipal Comissioner has requested the citizens to not dispose garbage on the roads and hand it over to the garbage collectors visiting their houses instead.
The alternative steps taken to ensure sanitation did not work as municipal workers prevented civic authorities from undertaking cleaning operations.
Garbage mounds are growing across Andhra’s towns. Daily-wage labourers are being relied on to clearn the trash in the main areas. Special teams are going from house to house collecting garbage. JCBs have been put into service to clean the mounds at some places. The number of garbage-collection trips by tractors has been increased to 120 per day.
A special six-member task force has been deployed to prevent any disturbances or disruptions per shift. The task force comprises a special officer, two town-planning representatives, one sub inspector and two constables, who are monitoring the city and the sanitation activities.
Meanwhile, The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to extend the occupational health allowance to the drivers of sanitation vehicles, underground drainage and malaria workers. They will be paid Rs 6,000 per month in addition to their existing wage. All sanitation workers have been receiving this allowance since 2021.
