Call for sense & sensibility on sanitation

HYDERABAD: The stench of garbage filled the twin cities on Wednesday following the flash strike by Telangana joint action committee of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) employees. Over 4,500 metric tonnes of wet and dry garbage in 5,500-odd dust bins was left to rot and the situation may turn from bad to worse if no immediate measures are taken. Normally, nearly 16,000 GHMC workers attend to this duty using as many as 900 vehicles and deposit the garbage at the Jawahar Nagar Dumping Yard. The bad news is the strike is likely to continue on Thursday too as talks between Minister for Marketing Mukesh Goud, Minister for Labour Danam Nagender and GHMC TJAC leaders failed this evening.Though the ministers apologised for Tuesday’s police action at the GHMC head-office and appealed to the GHMC TJAC leaders to call off the strike, the latter demanded the transfer of GHMC Commissioner Krishna Babu and suspension of erring police officials. The union leaders will be meeting on Thursday to take a decision on whether to continue the stir.  The strike began suddenly on Tuesday after policemen took GHMC TJAC employees and workers’ leader G Shankar and others into custody for allegedly forcing employees who were on duty to leave the premises. Shankar and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) additional general secretary Vinay Kapoor said they would call off the strike only if the erring policemen were suspended and the GHMC commissioner was transferred. During the day, GHMC Commissioner Krishna Babu held a meeting with floor leaders of the Congress, MIM, TDP and the BJP and urged them to persuade the striking employees to resume sanitation works.The floor leaders, in turn, requested the TJAC leaders to exempt essential services like sanitation including garbage lifting and road sweeping from the ambit of the Telangana general strike.Krishna Babu told Express that they are making efforts to persuade the workers to call off the strike. “We have not lodged complaint against anybody and even asked the police to release the arrested persons,” he said.