MYSURU: The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) was able to partially pick up the garbage piled across the city since July 1 with the help of 518 regular pourakarmikas on Monday. However, in several places, especially in the city outskirts, the garbage continued to pile with 2,026 pourakarmikas on contract, direct payment, and garbage vehicle drivers continuing the strike.
According to the city residents, the garbage collection on Monday was carried out some residential areas with regular pourakarmikas visiting the neighbourhoods. In many areas, the roads were also cleaned by the pourakarmikas.
At the same time, residents in some localities had to put up with unbearable stench as garbage continued to pile up with a majority of the pourakarmikas employed on a contract basis continuing to stay away from work.
“It is very difficult to keep the city clean without enough number of pourakarmikas as floating population is very high due to the arrival and departure of the tourists,” explained officials from the MCC.
“There was no prior information about the garbage collection today. I was waiting for the pourakarmikas last three days. It is not easy to keep the wet waste inside home,” said Sandhya AS, a teacher from Tyagaraja Road in the city.
MCC health officer Dr DG Nagaraj confirmed that the pourakarmikas on regular service attended the duty on Monday.
Protest withdrawn
The agitating pourakarmikas continued to hold a protest in front of the corporation office in the city on Monday. “All our demands are fair and the government should fulfil them immediately. All the pourakarmikas barring those on a regular payroll of the MCC are attending the protest,” explained union leaders. “Presently the pourakarmikas are exploited and not paid their dues. It is the responsibility of the civic society to respond to their demands,” they added.
Later in the day, union leaders withdrew the protest claiming that the state government has agreed to all their demands.
All the agitating pourakarmikas will return to duty on Tuesday, they added.
