The Hindu 09.09.2014
Garbage piles up as strike by conservancy workers continues
About 680 workers went on strike from September 1
Garbage piled up in Chinna Pudur in Ward 13 in Salem on Monday.-PHOTO:P.GOUTHAM.
: With the strike by conservancy workers, engaged by a
private contractor for solid waste management work in 21 wards of the
City Municipal Corporation, entering the eighth day on Monday, there is
growing concern among the residents regarding the piling up of garbage
in residential areas.
About 680 contractor workers
had begun an indefinite strike from September 1 demanding that they
should be paid Rs. 15,000 as monthly salary and job permanency. Talks
with Corporation officials and Labour department failed to yield any
results and they continued their strike. Most of the 21 wards are
located in Kondalampatti and Ammapet Zone and about 100 tonnes of
municipal solid waste is being generated everyday.
Overflowing
bins and garbage dumped on roads were common scenes in many of the
residential areas. Residents were also dealing with the bad odour due to
the improper disposal of waste.
“ We were forced to
dump garbage on the road as the two bins were full. It has been not
cleared for the past 10 days” , residents in Chinna Pudur said. They
complained of bad odour and many were concerned about the possible
threat to health and spread of diseases due to piling of garbage. “
Before any health issue arises, the garbage should be cleared” , they
added. Though the civic body cleared bins that were placed on the main
roads, streets in the interior areas were left untouched.
Corporation Commissioner S.R. Selvaraj told
The Hindu
that additional bins were placed in these wards to clear the garbage. He
said that desilting works and door-to-door collection of garbage was
completely affected in the past one week.
Though the
Corporation claims that garbage was cleared regularly, most of the bins
in streets of Ammapet were overflowing with garbage. “Garbage on roads
can causes serious problems in traffic movement” , residents in many of
the wards said. Of the total 60 wards in the Corporation limits, the
civic body maintains solid waste management in 39 wards while the rest
of the 21 wards are under the maintenance of a private contractor.