1,200 municipal contract workers join strike in Tirupati

Tirupati/Chittoor: Following the statewide call given by Municipal Workers' Union (MWU), about 1,200 contract employees working in various departments of Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) joined the strike keeping aside their routine duties here on Monday.

The leaders of Municipal Contract Employees Union affiliated to AITUC of CPI raised slogans against the government and demanded to resolve their long-pending problems including providing salaries as per 11th PRC, Rs 18,000 salary per month, benefits including gratuity to the retired employees, making job permanent for contract and outsourcing employees and implementation of time scale to the NMR employees.

CPM, CPI (ML) New Democracy extended their support to the municipal employees' indefinite strike.

Under the impact of strike, the heaps of garbage seen everywhere in the temple city.

Speaking on the occasion, CPI district secretary P Murali said Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy paying only Rs 15,000 per month against his promise Rs 18,000 and added that the corporation garbage lifting vehicles will not move an inch till the workers' problems are addressed by the government.

He warned the government that they will continue the strike till the government comes down to solve their problems. He said all the demands of contract workers were fair because they are playing key role in keeping the city or town clean.

MWU district president and secretary Thulasendra and Ramachandraiah respectively, AITUC leaders Kumar Reddy, Radhkrishna, ND Ravi, Doraswamy, Madan, Gurrappa and Indumathi were present. In Chittoor, Municipal Corporation Contract Workers Union president S Nagarajan said that the strike was inevitable because of the reluctance and negligent attitude of the government in keeping its assurances towards the municipal workers.

Addressing the agitating contract and outsourced sanitation workers at Gandhi statue on Monday, Nagarajan said the government has failed to keep its promises despite repeated appeals and protests. He said the workers were denied PF facility, health cards and failed to remit Rs 20,000 salary per sanitation workers. If the government consents for all the demands unconditionally, he said the strike would be called off. Municipal Commissioner Dr J Aruna said the civic body was making arrangements in the backdrop of strike by sanitation workers.