Hyderabad, September 24: Minutes after immersion of Ganesh idols on NTR Marg on Thursday, the entire stretch witnessed heavy scrambling to fish out iron and other scrap materials from the lake bank.
As huge idols floated on the lake surface, a few hundred men clambered up on them to retrieve remains of iron pedestals, mangled pieces of iron and other scrap. A large number of rag-pickers and labourers entered into the lake on Thursday morning to retrieve whatever scrap they could get their hands on.
Many scrap dealers had hired labourers to retrieve the scrap metal.
A few rag-pickers and labourers were seen jostling for rights of the iron scrap. Meanwhile, traffic police had a tough time controlling them, as they kept the scrap on footpaths and roads, resulting in traffic jams.
Srikanth, a scrap supplier from Minister’s Road, had employed a dozen people for retrieving the scrap.
He said the metal scrap was mainly used by automobile spare parts shops and auto rickshaw repair shops for making bumpers and other repair work.
Another scrap dealer, Ramesh of Fatehnagar said the chances of retrieving a good amount of scrap was less as labourers of private crane operators involved in immersion of idols took away a good quantity of scrap.
Yadagiri, a rag-picker of MS Maktha said a single iron pedestal depending on the size could fetch anywhere from Rs 400 to Rs 800 in the scrap market. “I have been in this job for the last three years and make Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 during these crucial three days,” he said.
Two labourers from Vikarabad in Rangareddy, Prakash and Yadaiah said they were coming here for the last three years and try to make some money by retrieving scrap and selling them outside.
Last year, they earned Rs 5,000. This time they are expecting to get around Rs 6,000.
–Agencies