Civic worker protests by standing in drain in Karnataka's Raichur

RAICHUR: A woman civic worker on Tuesday stood in a storm water drain (SWD) and staged a protest at Bhagigunta in Raichur district after being denied a meeting with a minister to put up her demands.


Geetha Singh, safai karmachari (civic worker engaged in sanitation work), shocked everyone by getting into the drain and pouring the dirty water over her before raising slogans.

She wanted to meet medical education minister Sharan Prakash Patil, who is also in charge of Raichur district, and demand a separate burial ground and national identity cards for safai karamcharis. Geetha had alleged that the security staff of the minister did not allow her to meet him or submit her petition to the minister. Enraged by this, she jumped into the nearby SWD and staged the protest.

"Though others tried to prevent her from getting into the SWD, she made her way into the gutter. She vented out her ire at the officials of the corporation," officials said. The photos of Geetha staging the protest have gone viral on social media.

Later, she was encouraged to come out of the drainage by Marke Yard police. On June 19, Geetha had come to meet the district minister with the demands, but the officers and police there allegedly did not let her meet him. Police took her in a vehicle and dropped her near her house.

The National Safai Karmachari Commission had called for online applications for identity cards for manual scavengers in 2020-21 for a one-year tenure, for which 80 civic labourers had applied. "Out of 80 applications, only six have gotten the ID card," said Raichur City Municipal Council commissioner Gurulingappa G K. Geetha, who had applied for the ID after the last date, failed to get it. "So she got agitated and staged a protest," he claimed.


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