Vizag Families in Trouble Due to Sanitation Worker's Strike

Visakhapatnam: The statewide strike by sanitation workers has seriously affected life in Vizag City. Housewives are bearing the brunt.

“Ours is a joint family, a lot of garbage is generated in our house. Before the strike, GVMC teams and their vehicles used to come and pick this from our doorsteps. Now we are in trouble. Everyone at home leaves for work in the morning. It is difficult for me to carry the garbage bag and walk to the dustbin far away,” says a resident of MVP, Ratnam.   

Rajitha, a housewife-cum-home tailor residing in Seethammadhara said, “Since this is the festival season, I do stitching even after midnight. Tailoring work generates lots of garbage and it is very difficult for me to walk up to the dustbin far away.”

Pramila, a beautician from Murali Nagar, said, “After everyone at home goes for work, I open my small beauty parlour set in my drawing room. This work produces lots of garbage. How long would I keep all these at home!"

In Vizag city, as many as 4900 outsourcing sanitation workers have stopped work as part of their statewide strike. Most families have been put in deep trouble.

GVMC aims to make Visakhapatnam a dustbin-free city. As part of this, the numbers of big dustbins and dumping yards are being reduced. At present, there are 450 big dustbins and dumping yards. These are far away from residential colonies.

Housewives, particularly those living in individual houses, are unable to walk to the dustbins more than 500 metres away from their houses. These women throw the household garbage in the small dustbins that are on the roads or in drainage canals.

GVMC’s chief medical officer Naresh Kumar said, “GVMC has hired 1500
temporary hands for sanitation work in eight zones. We are also running 85 garbage vehicles in residential colonies. However, the sanitation workers on strike are preventing these temporary hands from working.”