The municipal employees’ statewide protest, which lasted 19 days and included a four-day complete halt in local civic operations, ended at midnight on Friday. Workers have been back on duty since early Saturday morning.
B.M. Nagendra Verma, president of the Karnataka State Civil Servants’ Association’s Hospet unit, stated, “The strike was withdrawn after the government agreed to meet 10 of our 19 demands. Cleanup activities began at 5 AM on Saturday.”
Although garbage trucks hit the roads by morning, several neighborhoods were overwhelmed with mounds of trash, making it difficult for the teams to stick to their regular door-to-door collection schedules.
Hospet typically generates around 120 tons of waste daily. The four-day disruption in garbage collection resulted in nearly 480 tons of trash accumulating in residential areas and public spaces.