Big-hearted Hyderabad sanitation worker donates salary to fight COVID-19

A sanitation worker in Hyderabad who earns Rs 12,000 per month has donated Rs 10,000 for COVID-19 relief.

The selfless act from the frontline worker helping the government fight off the COVID-19 pandemic has earned the admiration of the citizens and Telangana municipal administration minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) to whom she handed the amount on Tuesday.

Yedumekala Alivelu has been with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation as a sweeper for about six years, operating in the Nanal Nagar area and residing in Jiyaguda of old Hyderabad.

“The plight of those rendered jobless, homeless was heart-wrenching. Since the Chandrasekhar Rao government gave us a bonus of Rs 7500, we added Rs 2500 of our savings and contributed the amount to help those affected by the virus,” Alivelu told DH.

Earlier this month, chief minister Rao had announced that unlike the part pay deferment for other government staff due to the COVID-19 affected revenue crisis, health, sanitation and police departments would be paid complete salaries. In addition, the CM declared “a gift” of Rs 7500 for GHMC and Rs 5000 for other municipality workers.

Alivelu’s husband Yedumekala Srisailam, who rears sheep working in a local market, and their two children – a boy doing diploma and girl studying in junior college - were supportive of her decision. Suggested by his son, Srisailam sent a tweet to KTR’s office on Sunday in order to reach KTR.

On Tuesday, after meeting the couple, KTR shared the pictures and experience on twitter. “Received a tweet couple of days ago from a GHMC worker called Alivelu saying she wants to contribute one month’s salary to CMRF. Intrigued, I asked my office to arrange a meeting. She came in today with the cheque and insisted that I accept it,” KTR tweeted. “She did not want anything from my side.”

KTR’s tweet received nearly 5900 likes. “Salary is small, but her heart is big. God bless you,” said one Ramaraju SVH, in one of the replies.

While appreciating the measures taken by the government, the Yedumekala couple believes the state would become novel Coronavirus free very soon.