Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Polit Bureau member B.V. Raghavulu has urged the Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to intervene and ensure that the municipal workers called off their strike.
The municipal workers’ strike reached the fourth day on Thursday.
Addressing the protesters, Mr. Raghavulu said that the workers went on strike as there was no other option left for them. Why were the allowances given to the employees who were engaged in protection of public health stopped, he asked.
Also, the government stopped extension of the welfare schemes to the municipal workers on one pretext or the other. Why was the government not taking any steps to regularise the services of municipal workers who were working for more than seven years when the services of village secretariat staff were regularised within two years, he questioned.
It was not correct on the part of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Audimulapu Suresh to ask the employees to call off the strike and participate in talks.
“What if the Central government says that it will hold talks with regard to the special category status (SCS) to A.P. and Visakha Steel Plant only after the State government is abolished?” The government should take steps to withdraw the rule of capturing the images of iris of municipal workers four times a day. The Chief Minister should understand and address the issues raised by them, he said.
CPI(M) State committee member Ch. Babu Rao, Municipal Employees’ JAC convener (CITU) K. Umamaheswa Rao, AITUC leader Subbarayudu, TNTUC leader Gottimukkala Raghuram and others spoke.
