Sanitation takes a back seat

Vijayawada: The state government is keen on the beautification of capital of Andhra Pradesh and proposed several plans for it. But, the municipal corporation is still not in a position to concentrate on proper waste collection from the city.

Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has 57 vehicles of different type for collection of waste in the city. But only 23 of them are ready for usage for daily activity. Remaining are ina state of disrepair in the vehicle depot and company service centres.  Executive engineer and in-charge of vehicle depot says, “We are trying our best to make the city clean. We use small and big trucks for waste collection and dumper placers for the bins. But, most of the vehicles are in a state of repair.”

The sanitary workers say that their working conditions are very poor.  Secretary of Municipal Workers Union Mazboor Ahmed said, “We have been submitting representations to the commissioner and mayor for the tools to do our work. They do not act on our demands. Our sanitary workers are doing their duty in hard conditions. Some of them are falling ill due to it.”

Deputy Mayor of VMC Gogula Venkata Ramana Rao explained the situation. “We were elected to the corporation when there were no funds in the treasury. We are trying hard to get more revenue by collecting the dues. We are giving more preference for the payment of salaries to the workers than procuring the new sets of tools. We will solve all the problems, but one after one,” he said. One of the sanitary workers said, “We dream big like making this city best in waste management. But in the reality, they do not provide basic facilities.”