VIJAYAWADA: The sanitation workers staged novel protests on the eighth day on Friday. They submitted a memorandum of demands to all corporators in the city and also staged a jala deeksha in Padmavathi Ghat. The workers walked on knees by putting flowers in their ears and organised Vanta Varpu in the middle of the road.
Meanwhile, nine leaders and functionaries of Municipal Workers and Employees Union were taken into custody for trying to stop the daily wage workers from discharging their duties at Chuttugunta. “We were only trying to explain daily wagers about our protest for better salaries and facilities,” said M David, general secretary, Vijayawada chapter of Municipal Workers and Employees Union.
While the Municipal Workers and Employees Union claimed that 4,000 workers are on strike, the VMC officials made it clear that only 1,500 sanitation workers are on strike.
“We have intensified cleaning operations across the city. We have deployed compact vehicles and hiring tractors to pick up the garbage,” said VMC Chief Health Officer K Arjuna Rao.