Hike sanitation workers’ pay in line with inflation: Harish | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: BRS MLA and former minister T Harish Rao on Sunday demanded a salary hike for Siddipet municipal sanitation workers, citing rising prices of essential commodities, house rents and transport costs. He said the Congress govt had not increased their wages since coming to power.Participating in Dasara celebrations with sanitation workers at Siddipet municipal office, Harish Rao had breakfast with them, enquired about their problems and distributed sarees to women workers and shirts and trousers to men. He said he had organised the programme at his own expense.Harish Rao said sanitation workers were responsible for Siddipet receiving Swachh Survekshan awards and national recognition, and that their contribution should not be overlooked.He said their monthly salary had increased from ₹8,300 under the previous Congress govt to ₹16,600 during the BRS tenure under K Chandrasekhar Rao. He alleged that wages had remained unchanged for three years under Congress rule even as living costs had risen sharply.Harish Rao said the BRS govt had introduced a group system to eliminate contractors and middlemen and ensure salaries were credited directly to workers’ bank accounts. He demanded that the system be extended to workers in other municipal departments, including water supply operators and plantation workers.He said civic infrastructure improvements in Siddipet, including underground drainage, mechanised road sweeping and door-to-door waste collection, had reduced the workload of sanitation workers. Removal of community garbage bins and measures to eliminate pigs from the town had also resulted in better sanitation, he added.Harish Rao said the Mallanna Sagar reservoir, built as part of the Kaleshwaram project, had helped resolve water supply problems by enabling gravity-based supply, reducing the need for water operators to work at irregular hours.Referring to rising prices, he said cooking oil cost around ₹210 per kg, toor dal ₹140-150, green gram dal ₹130, onions ₹50-60 and rice around ₹80 per kg. He said sanitation workers were justified in demanding higher wages in view of these increases.He also alleged that bus fares had risen substantially, citing an increase in the fare from Hyderabad’s Jubilee Bus Station to Siddipet from ₹130-150 to ₹230.Harish Rao also urged municipal officials to resolve provident fund, ESI and account-related issues faced by families of deceased employees.