School sweepers’ salaries withheld ahead of Dasara

Wanaparthy: AITUC district general secretary K Mosha and assistant secretary K Sriram on Monday demanded suspension of a ZP official, who has been harassing school sweepers working in government schools, by withholding their pending salaries ahead of the Dasara festival.

They were addressing the AITUC protesters at the collectorate, demanding immediate payment of three months’ outstanding wages to sweepers. A memorandum regarding this was submitted to Additional collector Vinod Kumar. The leaders stated that part-time sweepers in government schools receive a monthly salary of only Rs 5,200, disbursed through the ZP office—and even that is often delayed by three-four months. As a result, the workers struggle to make ends meet every month.

They pointed out that the ZP administration had released funds for payment of three months’ salaries to sweepers across various districts; while workers in other districts had received wages, those in this district are yet to be paid.

The sweepers stated that they had approached ZP computer operator Raghava multiple times, seeking payment. However, he offered flimsy excuses and failed to forward the authorisation letter to the sub-treasury office), resulting in non-payment of wages. When questioned why they were facing such difficulties here, he suggested that those in other districts might have “paid” to get their dues. This implies that the operator has deliberately kept the payments pending, likely in anticipation of some personal gain.

Pointing out that the ZP lacks a CEO, the workers protested to bring their grievances to the attention of the collector. They demanded the collector intervene immediately to ensure release of salaries and suspend the operator; otherwise, they warned to intensify the agitation after Dasara. They highlighted that sweepers have been working for decades on meagre, insufficient wages and demanded regularisation. AITUC district assistant secretary Ramesh, treasurer Bhaskar, CPI Wanaparthy constituency secretary Ramesh, and sweeper union leaders Kayyum, Abhimanyu, Gopal Goud, Bhaskar, Venkatesh, Chandramma, Shyam Sundar, Shantanna, Bala Peer and Shobharani joined the protest.

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The Hans India