Except Tirupati, cleanliness goes for a toss in all civic areas

Tirupati: Garbage has piling up in all the municipalities and corporations excluding Tirupati for more than 3 days with the ongoing strike of contract sanitation workers.

They are continuing the strike demanding that the government should scrap GO 279. It may be noted that sanitation workers are on strike from October 2nd onwards from this month. In the district, Tirupati is the biggest civic body. The pilgrim city generates 219 tonnes of garbage every day in which 175 tonnes are being cleared in the strike period.

Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) Commissioner V Vijay Rama Raju taking special attention in clearing the waste lying on the roads and public places. In the strike period, 100 temporary workers are engaged for lifting the garbage and cleaning the drains and 10 additional private tractors to the existing fleet are being used to transport garbage to the dump yard.

At present, 14 compactors and 13 tractors are continuously clearing the garbage from the city and residential colonies located on the outskirts of city. Almost 95 per cent of the garbage generated every day is being removed from designated dumper bins in the city.

The civic chief allotted special duties to all the heads of the departments to inspect cleanliness in the divisions and main roads every day. In other municipalities like Srikalahasti, only 30 to 40 per cent of garbage is being cleared once in three days.

Speaking to The Hans India, Sanitary Supervisor N Govardhan said that the MCT chief had taken special measures for clearing the garbage. On Friday, the sanitation workers staged a novel protest in front of the MCT office. They wore variety attire and performed a street play against the state government for its negligence in clearing their demands.