Novel protest by Amaravati sanitation workers

PNS|Vijayawada

Sanitation workers of capital Amaravati organised a ‘begging protest’ demanding payment of the pending wages, which had not been paid for the past four months, at the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) office in Vijayawada on Monday.

They also demanded withdrawal of a proposal for the removal of workers from January 2023. CPM and CITU extended support to the workers’ agitation and later, they submitted a representation to CRDA Commissioner Vivek Yadav.For the past four months, sanitation workers at the Secretariat and the High Court have not been getting wages from the CRDA. The workers have been requesting the CRDA officials to release their pending wages, but in vain.

Hundreds of Amaravati sanitation workers took part in the begging protest staged in front of the CRDA head office in Vijayawada on Monday. They begged for money in front of the people, who came to the office for various purposes, explaining that they had not been getting wages from the CRDA and that their families had been facing financial troubles.Though they had been staging protests for the past 45 days, no one responded. So, the workers came up with the begging protest. Police tried to prevent them, but they failed to control the agitation.

Speaking on the occasion, CPM State secretariat member Ch Babu Rao warned the CRDA officials that the agitations would be strengthened if wages were not paid. “The State government is giving salaries to higher officials every month on day 1. But, labourers are not getting wages on the same day. Even during the pandemic, sanitation workers continued to work,” he said.

He further said that if CRDA did not pay wages to the workers, CPM would organise an agitation. Also, he demanded withdrawal of the proposal for the removal of sanitation workers from January. He said that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy should intervene in the matter.