Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Town Planning wing continues stir

HYDERABAD: The Town Planning wing in the GHMC head office was closed for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, protesting over registration of cases against their colleagues during the fracas with MIM MLAs on Saturday last. All employees including those from other departments joined them in organising lunch hour demonstrations sporting black flags. Works relating to the planning office like road widening and others continue to be disrupted and number of visitors too has significantly come down.

Some senior officials are said to be frantically working to thrash out a compromise formula but have not achieved any breakthrough thus far. The demand from the MLAs is said to be to take some ‘action’ against the personnel involved in the clash while the latter as of now do not want to yield.

In the meantime, Bhagyanagar Municipal Employees Union has served a strike notice to the Commissioner and Special Officer, C.V.S.K. Sarma stating that they strike work on August 13 and 14 if their demands are not settled immediately. The Union General Secretary, P. Ram Reddy, said protests would also be held at the zonal and head offices on these two days. More than 3,000 posts have not been filled for years burdening the existing staff, pointed out Mr. Reddy. These posts can be filled from among the contract labour and others working for more than 15 years. Eligible municipal employees should be considered for filling up all posts except the top job. Equal work and equal pay to the contract labour, compensation of Rs. 5 lakh to heirs of employees deceased while working, appointments on compassionate grounds and so on are among the other demands.

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