VIJAYAWADA: Sanitation blues continue to haunt the cities and towns of Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts. There has been no let-up in the suffering of the people from the stink of garbage, which only increased by the day.
With the civic bodies looking for alternative ways to tackle the situation instead of conceding to their demands, the striking sanitation workers on Thursday started obstructing permanent employees and volunteers who were clearing the rubbish. At places, they had strewn the collected garbage on roads.
In Vijayawada, the striking sanitation workers staged a protest rally and laid siege to mayor Koneru Sridhar’s house demanding the government to concede to their demands. Later in the day, mayor and other corporators visited various areas in the city and were shocked to find huge piles of garbage everywhere.
The mayor said that striking workers were not only obstructing the regular employees from delivering their duties but also scattering the garbage collected and kept on the roadside for shifting to the dumpyard. He urged the agitators to desist from such acts and assured to take up their matter with chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu during his visit to the city on Friday.
Meanwhile, municipal commissioner G Veerapandian, who held discussions with a delegation from AP Chamber of Commerce and Industries Federation (APCCIF) on Thursday, stressed the need for hotels and commercial establishments to make their own arrangements for clearing the waste and transporting the same to dumping yards.
He explained the alternative measures initiated to tackle the situation like mechanised sweeping machines and sought the APCCIF’s cooperation in creating more awareness among people about the upkeep of sanitation. On the occasion, Green Biotech representative Phani gave a power point presentation on possible solutions for long and short-term solutions for sanitation problems in the city.
The situation was no different in Machilipatnam municipality of Krishna district. The civic administration asked the councillors to make their own arrangements for clearing the garbage from their respective wards. But, the situation is slowly taking ugly turn and becoming a political issue, with the members of Opposition parties, particularly YSR Congress, refusing to cooperate.
Though MLAs and other people’s representatives were visiting different urban local bodies including Guntur Municipal Corporation, their efforts to reason with the striking sanitation workers were not yielding any result. In-charge commissioner C Anuradha yet again appealed to the sanitation workers to attend duties immediately. She also urged the protesters not to hinder volunteers from clearing the litter.
At Fish Market, when the agitators continued to obstruct the movement of vehicles from municipal shed, Guntur West MLA Modugula Venugopal Reddy brought the garbage lifting vehicles out of the shed with the help of police and removed the waste.
In Ongole and other towns of Prakasam district, the situation continued to be grim.