HYDERABAD: The unrelenting Municipal Employees and Workers Unions have decided to intensify their agitation by organising relay hunger strikes at all the 18 circles in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) from Monday.
The indefinite strike by the municipal unions entered the seventh day on Sunday. Sweeping of roads, lifting and transportation of garbage was affected in many parts of the city as contract workers working in sanitation, transport and malaria sections stayed away from work for the seventh consecutive day.
With the State Government and municipal unions at loggerheads, the city is stinking with each passing day. The State Government did not hold talks with leaders of the Telangana Municipal Employees and Workers United Association, who are spearheading the agitation, on Sunday.
As there is no headway, the unions decided to continue their strike till their demands are met by the government.
The GHMC, meanwhile, started implementing its contingency action plan on a large-scale. It deployed garbage vehicles and hired private vehicles to clear thousands of metric tonnes of garbage from the main roads. A number of labourers were hired for lifting and transporting the garbage from garbage bins to the garbage transfer stations and the dumping yard.
The GHMC was able to clear 1,815 metric tonnes of garbage out of the 20,000 tonnes of accumulated garbage on Sunday. It has not yet initiated steps to clear dumps of accumulated garbage from residential colonies, lanes and bylanes. Currently, the GHMC is giving top priority to clearing garbage from main roads. It has deployed 466 GHMC vehicles as well as hired private vehicles to clear the garbage. On a daily basis, about, 4,000 metric tonnes of garbage is generated in the Greater Hyderabad limits.
Municipal unions are demanding regularisation of services of contract workers, increase in salaries of contract workers and outsourcing workers to `17,400 per month and allotment of 2 BHK houses for the employees etc. The unions have been on an indefinite strike since July 6.
GHMC Special Officer Somesh Kumar urged the unions to call off their stir and resume duties as Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is keen to solve their demands at the earliest.