Opposition leaders warn of chain hunger strike over vacant KMC posts from tomorrow

Kolhapur: The leader of opposition in Kolhapur Municipal Corporation, Rajesh Latkar, and Congress group leader Indrajit Bondre have warned that Congress corporators would launch a chain hunger strike outside the civic headquarters from Thursday if state govt failed to approve recruitment for vacant posts of civic engineers, sanitation workers and surveyors within the next two days.Congree corporator Latkar said Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) was operating with severe staff shortages across key departments. "There are several vacant posts. There are no engineers, sanitation workers or surveyors. Many departments are being run by in-charges, and several engineers are handling two to three additional responsibilities. This affects overall functioning, leads to delays, encourages corruption and compromises the quality of work," he said.

He said KMC's organisational structure was approved a few months back, along with those of Sangli, Amravati, Sambhajinagar and Akola municipal corporations. Recruitment approvals for the other corporations had already been issued, he said, questioning why Kolhapur's proposals were left pending. "There is Mahayuti govt in the state, and the alliance also holds power in the municipal corporation. Then what is the reason for keeping this issue unresolved? Both MLAs from Kolhapur North and South belong to the Mahayuti.

They claim to bring funds. So why has the recruitment approval not come yet?" Latkar asked.Supporting the demand, Bondre said key posts had remained vacant for the last three to four years. "There must be some reason behind this delay. If these posts are not filled in the next 48 hours, all Congress corporators will sit on a chain hunger strike in front of the municipal corporation building," he said.