Strike hits sanitation work at Sabarimala

By Our Staff Reporter

PATHANAMTHITTA, DEC 20. All 410 workers of the Sabarimala Sanitation Society at Pampa and the Sannidhanam began an indefinite strike at 8 a.m. today demanding a hike in daily wages.

The SSS workers were recruited from Tamil Nadu through the Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sanghom on daily wages of Rs. 80 for taking up cleaning works at Sabarimala during the ongoing annual Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrim season.

However, the workers had submitted a memorandum to the District Collector, Mr. S. Sukumaran, who is also the chairman of the society, demanding an increase in daily wages from Rs. 80 to Rs. 125 a week ago.

The Collector, in an official release issued here today, said the society was ready to hike the wages by Rs. 10 from today or effect an increase of Rs. 5 with retrospective effect from November 14 when the workers joined duty at Sabarimala. The Collector also warned that if the workers continued their strike, the society would make alternative arrangements for sanitation work at Sabarimala with the help of the Ayyappa Seva Sanghom.

Mr. Sukumaran said that arrangements had already been made to recruit another set of workers from Tamil Nadu with the co- operation of the Ayyappa Seva Sanghom unit there.

Meanwhile, the accumulation of waste at Pampa and the Sannidhanam following the strike by SSS workers has posed serious pollution problems at Sabarimala at a time when the flow of pilgrims to the holy hillock was at its peak, with hardly a week left for the culmination of the 41-day long Mandalam season.

The SSS workers say that they were paid Rs. 80 a day during the previous season for their 8-hour daily work and that they had demanded a wage hike now as their duty hours had increased to 10 hours per day.

Shop catches fire

A minor fire broke out in a godown of an aluminium vessel shop near the Ayyappa Seva Sanghom office this morning. The Fire Force unit stationed at the Sannidhanam managed to put out the fire before it could spread to nearby shops.

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Section  : Southern States
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