MAPUSA
Assuring to resolve all the issues of the garbage collectors, Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) Chairperson Shubangi Vaigankar said the waste collectors deserved better as they have been working in trying conditions despite the ongoing Covid crisis.
“We are aware of the problems faced by the daily wage workers and the council will do all that is possible to alleviate their problems and work out a solution within the parameters of the law,”
Vaigankar said.
She said that she has discussed the issue with the chief officer and stressed the need to address their issues seriously because of their immense contribution to keep the city clean.
“At present, with the Covid crisis and the recent Cyclone Tauktae, before even the councillors could take oath, the daily wage workers have finished arduous tasks of restoring normalcy in just five days. Even at the height of the Covid crisis, they have been working to keep the city clean. I am aware of their contribution. I will take an appropriate decision to resolve their problems,” she said.
The long pending demand of hike in salaries and regularisation of jobs of the garbage collectors came to haunt the MMC very recently.
Over 200 daily wage workers engaged in door-to-door waste collection within the jurisdiction of the Mapusa municipality did not collect house-hold waste for two days, before the new chairperson could take over the reins of the council.
However, on the intervention of the chief officer, the workers resumed waste collection on May 27, on the day the chairperson and the councillors took oath of office, with the assurance that the new chairperson would take an appropriate call on their demands.
According to the waste collectors, some of them have been working for more than a decade but have not received a hike in payment from the time they joined. Besides, on several occasions, the civic body delayed in making their monthly payment.
“We no longer can make a living with the kind of remuneration package provided by the municipality. Time and again, we have been demanding to increase our salaries. Last time the civic officials promised to hike our salaries but failed to do so,” said one of the garbage collectors, who work on daily wages.
All the waste collectors who work as daily-wage workers get paid around Rs 499 per day.
“We neither get medical allowance nor are entitled for an insurance policy. At least during this pandemic, the government should look into our plight on humanitarian grounds,” said another waste collector.
Most of the daily-wage workers are involved either in the collection of door-to-door garbage or sorting of the waste at the dumping site.
“There are so many of us who have worked for over 15 years but are yet to be confirmed. We demand that at least those who are working for more than five years may be regularised,” a daily wage worker said.
