Visakhapatnam heaves a sigh of relief as garbage clean-up finally starts

After a two-week strike, municipal workers in Visakhapatnam resume garbage collection, bringing relief to residents.

Earthmovers were back in action across the city, clearing tonnes of garbage that had accumulated on the roads over the course of the two-week agitation launched by municipal contract and outsourcing workers. With the workers temporarily calling off their strike, door-to-door garbage collection resumed in a full-fledged manner on Friday morning, with Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP) drivers coming back to duty much to the relief of residents.

Over 5,000 municipal contract and outsourcing staff had embarked on a State-wide agitation two weeks ago demanding that the State government resolve their pending demands such as a salary hike and regularisation of services of contract workers. The strike paralysed garbage lifting across the city, with residents pushed to the brink of despair as heaps of waste on the city roads kept piling up by each passing day.

Despite recruiting daily wage staff and deploying its permanent employees on garbage collection duty, the situation largely remained unchanged, putting severe pressure on the municipal corporation.

On Friday morning, the sanitation inspectors, local corporators and other public elected representatives were seen actively engaging workers to clear garbage from major centres. Earthmoving vehicles were used in most of the wards in order to clear the massive piles of garbage.

“It is a huge relief for us, as Sankranti is round the corner. Major areas and localities near Rythu Bazaars were cleared first. Door-to-door garbage was collected later. Many drivers had to make double and triple trips to clear the garbage from apartments and gated communities,” said a senior officer from the GVMC.