Karnataka - Bijapur   

Waste piles up in Bijapur as municipal staff strike continues

Staff Correspondent

Water supply affected; residents fear outbreak of epidemic

filth: Waste has piled up in many parts of Bijapur city follwing the strike by municipal workers.

BIJAPUR: Citizens on Saturday began to feel the heat of the strike by municipal employees as the staff responsible for water distribution too joined the stir.

Although the municipal authorities hired the services of some employees of the Karnataka State Water Supply and Sewage Board (KSWSSB), distribution was not normal in localities where water was to be supplied on Saturday.

For the sixth consecutive day on Saturday, sanitation work was not carried out. As a result, waste piled up in the city, giving stray pigs a field day. The stink emanating from the rotten waste was just intolerable. Drainage lines were blocked and sewage started flowing on to the roads in some localities. There is fear of an epidemic outbreak.

The contractors responsible for sanitation hired labourers to clean the city but they could not do it because the striking employees opposed it. Office work such as issuing of death and birth certificates and tax collection have come to a standstill.

Municipal Commissioner L. Sonne Gowda said that water supply might not affect much as alternative arrangements had been made. “Hopefully, sanitation will also be smooth from tomorrow. The contractors have promised to make some alternative arrangements. Otherwise, their sanitation contracts would be terminated,” he said.

Similar conditions prevailed in other urban centres in the district. The strike had a negative impact on water supply and sanitation, according to reports received at the district headquarters. The situation in Bagalkot district was not different.

According to B.V. Soudhagar, president of district unit of Karnataka Rajya Pouraseva Noukarara Sangha, over 5,000 civic employees are on strike in Bijapur and Bagalkot districts.

Mr. Soudhagar said the strike would continue till the Government conceded their demands. Giving salary benefits on a par with that of State Government employees was their major demand.

The agitation would be intensified from Monday by launching a fast. Road blockades, bandh and fast-unto-death would be the next steps.

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