Seeking regularisation, timely payment of salary, Ludhiana MC employees give 3-day ultimatum

Employees gathered at the Ludhiana MC’s Zone-D office on Tuesday and handed over a memorandum to MC commissioner Shena Aggarwal seeking regularisation, timely payment of salary

Criticising the municipal corporation (MC) for its failure to regularise contractual employees and release salary for the month of July, MC employees’ union— Municipal Employees’ Sangharsh Committee gave a three-day (72 hours) ultimatum to authorities to fulfil their demands or face agitation.

Meanwhile, Ludhiana MC officials said the process of regularisation of contractual employees was already going on and the lists of employees to be regularised were being verified by the MC as demanded by the General House (HT FILE)

The union members gathered at the MC’s Zone-D office on Tuesday and handed over a memorandum to MC commissioner Shena Aggarwal.

The union members, led by chairperson Ashwani Sahota and president Jasdev Sekhon, said the MC had failed to regularise contractual employees (sweepers and sewermen) despite repeated meetings held in the past few months. They stated that the previous Congress government had issued notification for the regularisation of employees and chief minister Bhagwant Mann had also announced to regularise around 3,600 employees during the Independence Day celebrations in the city, but the appointment letters had still not been issued to the contractual employees.

Further, they rued that a large number of employees had still not received the salary for the month of July and the MC should make sure that salaries are released in the first week of every month. Other demands of the union included repairs of Valmiki Bhawan ong 394 contractual drivers/beldars etc in n Chandigarh road and includithe list of employees to be regularised.

Sahota said if the civic body failed to fulfil their demands in 72 hours, an agitation would be raised outside the MC’s headquarters (Zone-A office) from August 26.

Despite attempts were made to reach MC commissioner Shena Aggarwal, she was not available for comments. Meanwhile, the MC officials said the process to regularise contractual employees was already going on and the lists of employees to be regularised were being verified by the MC as demanded by the General House. Further, they said the payment of salaries got delayed as the state government failed to transfer the MC’s GST share for the last two months which is over ₹100-crore, while MC has to pay the monthly salary of around ₹28-crore.