Salaries of Hyderabad sanitation workers hiked amid COVID-19 pandemic

TheTelangana government increased the salaries of Hyderabad civic body sanitation workers on Saturday in gratitude for the good work they have been discharging amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "Compared to other places like Mumbai and Chennai, the severity of cases is lesser in Hyderabad. A major role was played by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) sanitation workers," said K Taraka Rama Rao, the state's Municipal Administration Minister.

He said the government has raised their salary by Rs 3,000 to Rs 17,500 per month. KTR reminded that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had already raised their salaries twice in 2015 and 2017. "The chief minister has a special affection towards the sanitation workers," he said.

According to KTR, the Chief Minister opined that how much ever the government gives to the sanitation workers, it is still less. "Because when 1 crore people are generating trash, 25,000 people are working hard to clean it. How much ever we do for them, it is less," KTR noted.

KTR said that the pay hike is a Deepavali gift to the workers and expected that they will be happy.

It was in April, amid the first lockdown due to the coronavirus in Telangana, that Chief Minister KCR announced Rs 7,500 as a special incentive to each sanitation worker in GHMC and Hyderabad Metro Water Supply (HMWS), besides Rs 5,000 each for their counterparts in municipalities and village panchayats. 

"I salute every sanitation worker for keeping every village, town and city clean and thus protecting people from COVID-19," the Chief Minister said at the time.

Meanwhile, Telangana registered 1,050 new COVID-19 cases, increasing the state's tally to 2.56 lakh, even as 1,736 more patients recovered from the virus to outnumber infections on Saturday. With the new recoveries, the total recoveries in the state rose to 2.38 lakh.

Telangana's recovery rate is currently at 93.06%, higher than the national average of 93%. Of the 2.56 lakh cases, active cases currently stand at 16,404.

In the past 24 hours, the state tested 41,002 samples for the virus, raising the total number of tests to 48.5 lakh.

With IANS inputs