Vavuniya Municipality workers on strike

The workers of the Vavuniya Municipality and a group of councilors had staged a protest blocking the Jaffna-Kandy A9 road yesterday, against the villagers not allowing them to take the garbage to the Vavuniya, Salambapuram garbage collection center.

The protest was staged opposite the Vavuniya District Secretariat where lorries and tractors loaded with garbage was brought to that location obstructing the road and hampering transport.

The garbage collected from the Vavuniya Municipality limits and the Vavuniya South Tamil Pradesiya Sabha areas have been dumped at this location for well over 23 years. However, now due to people building houses in this area it is not possible to dump the garbage there.

The protestors claim that while several tractors were transporting the garbage to the said location, a group of residents had chased them away and not allowed them to dump the garbage there. Therefore, the Vavuniya Municipality workers said that since they had no alternative, the garbage loaded tractors were brought to the Vavuniya District Secretariat and the workers had staged the protest demanding for a solution to resolve this crisis.

The municipality workers said that if they are provided police protection, they would take the garbage to the garbage disposal point, but if not, they would have no other alternative but to dump the garbage near the District Secretariat.

The protestors had obstructed the road for over three hours and said they would not move off the road until a solution was given to their problem.

A discussion was held with the District Secretary and the Municipality PHIs and other officers yesterday with the aim of resolving the issue.

Courtesy : SriLanka Mirror