THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A tense situation erupted in front of the city corporation office on Wednesday when a section of sanitation workers belonging to two unions gathered in protest raising a slew of issues.
Two workers belonging to the District Sanitation Workers Union (CITU) climbed a tree in the corporation office premises threatening to jump and they blocked the way to the entrance with bins filled with garbage disrupting the movements other vehicles, citizens and employees. Everybody who arrived at the corporation office had to use the back gate till the afternoon.
The agitators, who started the protest at 5.30 am, remained on top of the tree until afternoon and later they wound up the protest following police intervention.
“We have been part of the household waste management for decades and after the deployment of Haritha Karma Sena we were removed from the job. Our vehicles have been confiscated by the corporation officials,” said Benoy Vithura, one of the protesters who climbed the tree. The former sanitation workers have been protesting for the past 34 days demanding their incorporation in the sanitation squad.
According to officials, the vehicles were seized because they were caught dumping waste in water bodies. “The vehicles were caught dumping waste in the water bodies and they should approach the court to get them back,” said an official of the civic body.
Meanwhile, another group of contingent workers of AITUC staged a dharna in front of the corporation office seeking intervention into a slew of issues faced by them including redeployment of duties, separate changing rooms for men and women workers, uniforms, soap, shoes and more.
In response to a High Court order demanding the removal of waste from a dumpsite at Beemapally, which has accumulated tonnes of legacy waste, the civic body has deployed several female contingent workers to the dump site. This has sparked an outrage among the workers who were forced to remove the waste with inadequate facilities.
Despite dumpsite remediation being a specialised work, the move of the civic body to use regular sanitation workers and redeploy them has irked them.
General Secretary of Municipal Corporation Workers Union (AITUC) P S Naidu alleged that women sanitation workers were working in poor conditions. “The civic authorities have issued an order deploying 21 sanitation workers on duty to clear the dumpsite at Beemapally. It is not routine work and women workers are having a hard time working in such situations. They are forced to lift heavy sacks filled with waste and load them to the truck. Many of them have expressed difficulties because of poor health,” alleged Naidu.
“We will be distributing the uniforms soon. We are ensuring all other equipment for them. It is the responsibility of the contingent workers to obey the duty calls and a civic body cannot function if they come up with such demands,” said an official.