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Protesting sanitation staff threaten to hold road blockades in Ludhiana today
The announcement comes a day after sanitation workers held demonstrations outside the municipal corporation’s (MC) Zone-A office in Ludhiana where they suspended work and demanded action over the alleged police lathicharge on sanitation workers in Barnala
The agitation by sanitation workers is set to intensify on Thursday with union leaders announcing a series of protests including road blockades and dumping garbage on roads and outside the residences of government leaders as part of the statewide Punjab bandh call.
The announcement comes a day after sanitation workers held demonstrations outside the municipal corporation’s (MC) Zone-A office in Ludhiana where they suspended work and demanded action over the alleged police lathicharge on sanitation workers in Barnala.
Vijay Danav chairperson of the MC employees union and a sanitation workers leader said that the government had failed to respond to the workers demands despite repeated assurances.
“The government should listen to our demands. Garbage has not been lifted because of the strike. If our demands continue to be ignored we will dump garbage on roads and outside the houses of government leaders as a mark of protest. We will also block roads” he said.
He said that the union had already begun preparations for protest by dumping garbage along roadsides in the Dugri area. According to him the action was meant to signal the scale of the agitation planned during the Punjab bandh.
The statewide strike was launched following the alleged police action against sanitation workers in Barnala has already disrupted garbage collection and delayed several municipal services across Punjab including Ludhiana.
Union leaders have reiterated their demand for strict action against the police personnel involved regularisation of contractual and overage workers and fulfilment of the assurances previously made by the state government.
