Kudumbashree stir starts today

Kozhikode: The garbage issue has come  to haunt the city  again with the waste collection unit of the Kudumbashree announcing a strike from Friday in  protest against the city corporation’s negligence towards them. If the corporation’s source of waste management does not rise to the occasion,  the city will stink  as the Kudumbashree has been clearing the waste from here for the last 14 years since its inception.    Earlier, the waste collectors had  submitted a set of 11 demands to the mayor and health standing committee chairman.

“For more than five years, we have been  pleading with the corporation to meet our demands,”  said C.P. Bindu, the Kudumbashree waste collector at Westhill- Chungam residents association.  Their demands  include making them contingent workers of  the corporation,  providing safety tools for  work,   50 percent of the fuel and vehicle maintenance bill and also  health cards and regular free check-ups, she added.

Health standing committee chairman K.V. Baburaj said that  200 vacancies under the contingency  category are filled  through the government’s agency of employment exchange and that the corporation has no role in it. The audit report of the corporation has directed not to allot any funds for the  workers as they come under Kudumbashree.  Hence the corporation is not liable to meet their expenses, including  for safety tools. “Still we are ready to meet some of their demands which will be discussed at  a meeting to be held at the corporation on June 17,” he said.