Sanitation staff of GGH Khammam urges govt to clear their dues soon

Last month, the contract sanitary workers called off the strike following an assurance from the Health Minister Damodar Rajanarsimha which did not materialise.

Khammam: Contract sanitary workers at Government General Hospital in Khammam have been at the receiving end as their contracting agency has failed to pay their wages regularly.

As many as 259 workers in the sanitation department, including patient care, security guards, garden workers and sanitation workers have been waiting to receive their salaries for the past three months. They staged protests several times demanding regular payment of wages, but in vain.

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The situation remained the same for the last two years. Around 2,000 patients and their attenders suffer whenever the workers launch protests to raise demand for their dues. However, the hospital administration continues to be indifferent to the contractual sanitary workers.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Trade Union Centre of India (TUCI) district secretary G Ramaiah complained that the state-run hospital is in bad shape and the three ministers Bhatti Vikramarka, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and Tummala Nageswara Rao have failed to address the issue.

Earlier, when the workers staged a dharna on May 6 and 7; Health Minister Damodar Rajanarsimha, the district ministers Vikramarka and Nageswara Rao, MLAs, MLCs and the Collector promised that they would pay the workers’ salaries on May 16. And the workers called off the strike.

But nearly a month after their promise, the workers are yet to receive their wages. When the protesting workers abstained from their duties, the contracting agency warned them of terminating their services, but did not make any effort to resolve their problems, Ramaiah lamented.

When the hospital sanitation workers protested about their salaries and stopped their duties, the municipal workers were called to the hospital and made to work in the hospital. But the workers who have been working for 20 to 30 years are not cared about, he noted.

Following repeated requests and protests, Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr. A Narendra Kumar assured to clear the wages for two months in a couple of days and another month’s wages after one month, Ramaiah informed. He urged the DME to find a permanent solution to the issue of non-payment of wages.