VIJAYAWADA: Tension prevailed for a while near Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) office on Monday, when village and ward volunteers in good numbers staged a demonstration demanding that the State government provide a minimum wage of `12,000 per month, job security, ESI and bus pass facility.
Intensifying their agitation, a section of women volunteers along with their children, also participated in the protest.
A minor scuffle ensued between the volunteers and police personnel when they tried to forcibly enter into the VMC office. With the situation going out of control, police personnel swung into action and shifted a section of the volunteers to restore normalcy.
Responding to volunteers’ demonstration, municipal corporation officials interacted with agitating volunteers assured of taking the matter to the notice of District Collector A Md Imtiaz. After getting an assurance from the officials, the volunteers left the spot after agitating for almost two and half hours.
Protests at MLA’s residence
Protests were organised in Kakinada where ward volunteers and rural village volunteers protested before the Kakinada city MLA Dwarampudi Chandra Sekhar Reddy’s house. They also demanded that their wages should be increased to `10,000. Before protesting, they gathered at a public park and took out a rally to the MLA’s house.
Volunteer demands
Secretariat/ward volunteers are demanding a minimum wage of `12,000 per month, job security, ESI and bus pass facility
Hard work gets unnoticed, say Tirupati volunteers
In Tirupati, the premises of the municipal corporation office reverberated with voices of ward and village volunteers demanding the State government to increase their salaries. More than 150 volunteers from all 50 wards in the city staged protests. The association members said, “Currently, the State government is paying `5,000 to each volunteer which is not enough.
We demand the government to increase our salaries to at least `10,000.” The volunteers have been rendering all government services at beneficiaries’ door steps through the secretariat system. “We are working hard and after all the hard work, what we get paid is a mere five thousand rupees,” a volunteer said.