Mohali sanitation workers call off strike after meeting MC officials
MC officials agreed with the demands of the sanitation workers, including recruiting more sanitation staff for cleaning sector roads (C-roads) after taking up the matter in the next House meeting.
Sanitation workers on Saturday ended their indefinite strike after three days of protest following a meeting with senior municipal corporation (MC) officials, including the mayor and commissioner.
MC officials agreed with the demands of the sanitation workers, including recruiting more sanitation staff for cleaning sector roads (C-roads) after taking up the matter in the next House meeting.
The sanitation union has also sought deployment of four employees at each public toilet in the city even when MC has already allotted the tender for public toilets’ maintenance to NGO Sulabh Shauchalaya. MC, however, assured to take up the same after expiry of the one-year contract.
The workers were also protesting against their salary deduction for six days while they were on strike in April.
On Saturday, MC officials agreed to pay the deducted salary after placing the matter before the MC House.
MC officials also agreed to the demand of the sanitation workers to take up the issue pertaining to constructing additional resource management centres (RMC) points in Mohali with GMADA.
At present, there are 14 RMC points in the city for processing city’s daily waste.
Pawan Godiyal, state general secretary of Sanitation Workers’ Union, said garbage will be collected from households and markets from Sunday.
The meeting was also attended by senior deputy mayor Amrik Singh Somal, deputy mayor Kuljit Singh Bedi and assistant commissioner Ranjiv Kumar, besides sanitation inspectors.
Sanitation workers had gone on strike, accusing MC officials of not including their issues in the agenda for the General House meeting that took place on Thursday.
Meanwhile, before the Saturday meeting with MC officials, sanitation workers allegedly misbehaved with their colleagues, including a woman, who cleaned the roads despite the ongoing strike.
After a female worker complained that union members twisted her arm while she was cleaning the roads in Sector 80, the sanitation inspectors lodged a written complaint with senior MC officers and also informed the police.
A senior MC officer said the sanitation workers blackmailed the officials by ganging up and interfered in the administrative decisions of MC. “After receiving the complaint of the female sanitation worker, we informed the police and have sought action against the culprits for such severe blackmailing and attacking the female worker who was doing her duty,” a sanitation inspector said.
However, Godiyal refuted the allegations. “The woman was not assaulted. She was only asked not to clean the road as the union was on strike. We received a call from the police station, but the matter was resolved later,” he said.