The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Vijayawada News : Removal of sanitary staff triggers row

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 03, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada

Removal of sanitary staff triggers row

By G.V. Ramana Rao

VIJAYAWADA, OCT. 2. The removal of 700 sanitary workers is snowballing into a major crisis that may paralyse the already-overburdened public health system in the city. The Urban Community Development (UCD) division has suddenly declared `persona non grata' members of once-active Development of Women and Children in Urban Areas (DWCUA) and other self-help groups.

The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC), in a bid to encourage self-help groups, awarded them maintenance of sanitation contracts six years ago. There are 2,327 self-help groups having 42,000 members with a savings of Rs. 34 crores within the municipal corporation limits. About 70 of these self-help groups took up sanitation contracts in 1998. These groups continued their thrift activity till the end of 2002 and abandoned them subsequently following a strike for enhancement of wages. Members of self-help groups stopped their thrift activities and even shared the revolving funds amongst themselves when they were not given the wage enhancement they expected. The authorities also let them slip for reasons best known to them. These groups gradually lost the status of self-help groups and members came to be referred to as contract workers.

Wage hike with a rider

The State Government, meanwhile, issued an order enhancing the wage of the sanitation worker to Rs. 2,220 with a rider that the number of contract workers be restricted to ensure that the budget provisions were not over-shot.

The city administrators woke up and asked the UCD division to get rid of some contract workers. Members of self-help groups that had no thrift activity were asked to seek employment elsewhere. At this juncture, trade unions intervened on the behalf of the self-help group members announcing that they would take up an agitation if they were not reinstated immediately. They also got ready to foil attempts by the UCD division to award sanitation contracts to other DWCUA group members.

The honorary president of the Municipal Corporation Employees Association, Donepudi Kasinath, says that it is not proper to replace one set of DWCUA group members by another set who lacked the expertise or experience. "The services of those who have been working for six years should be regularised,'' he said.

The VMC boasts that all major and minor roads of the city are cleaned everyday by sweepers and 50 per cent of them were members of 74 self-help groups. The crisis is ready to explode pending the decision of the Assistant Labour Commissioner who will conduct tripartite talks with the workers and the municipal corporation authorities.

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