Sanitation workers’ strike enters 3rd day, garbage piles up

Tirupati: Municipal sanitation workers indefinite strike which entered the third day on Friday resulted in heaps of garbage accumulated in the streets in the city.

Following the State-level workers’ Union call, about 800 sanitary workers went on indefinite strike to press the government to concede their long pending demands.

The demands include regularisation of contract employees including those working in engineering department underground drainage system, drivers and others.

Daily the pilgrim city is generating about 200 metric tonnes of garbage including dry and wet waste. The garbage generation is more in the city due to constant flow of pilgrims which is on an average about 80,000 daily and also due to the presence of large number of educational institutions including universities and colleges. However, 133 regular employees were not participating in the strike.

Municipal corporation health officer Yuva Anvesh Reddy said they were engaging smart city workers for urgent sanitation works and engaging workers from other departments to cover important areas including the bus stand and railway station.