Mayor-SE tiff: MCG workers defer strike till Friday

Last week, the protesting MCG employees had threatened to carry out a strike unless the government reinstated the SE by Monday. Union members said that the decision to extend the deadline was taken internally, without the intervention of any official

Employees of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) on Monday again deferred their strike to protest the suspension of a superintending engineer (SE) following a tiff with the mayor. They have now decided to wait till Friday, September 24, for the Haryana government to reinstate the SE, members of the engineers’ union said.

Following a tiff with mayor Madhu Azad regarding the cleaning of a blocked drain in Ward 22, the directorate of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) had suspended SE Ramesh Sharma two weeks ago. The ULB’s decision had evoked a strong reaction from MCG officials, contractual staff, and their unions, who went on a strike. (HT Archive)

“We have internally decided to give the MCG and the Haryana government till the end of this week to sort out the matter. If they still do not meet our demands on Friday, we will deliberate over the next course of action,” Praveen Kumar, head of the MCG engineers’ union, said.

Kumar, however, did not specify any reason for extending the deadline again.

Last week, the protesting employees had threatened to carry out a strike unless the government reinstated the SE by Monday. Union members said that the decision to extend the deadline was taken internally, without the intervention of any official.

Following a tiff with mayor Madhu Azad regarding the cleaning of a blocked drain in Ward 22, the directorate of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) had suspended SE Ramesh Sharma two weeks ago. The ULB’s decision had evoked a strong reaction from MCG officials, contractual staff, and their unions.

For the first time since its formation in 2008, the MCG employees staged a protest in the form of a two-day pen-down strike on September 9 and 10, demanding the reinstatement of the SE.

After reassurances from the MCG commissioner, Mukesh Kumar Ahuja, that the matter would be “looked into”, the protesters had initially given the commissioner a five-day deadline, till September 15, to resolve the matter. On September 15, after a meeting with Ahuja, they deferred their deadline by another five days to September 20, due to unavailability of officials concerned.

A senior MCG official, requesting anonymity, said that the strike has lost momentum and it is unlikely that a full-scale strike will be carried out again.

“Just a day before the September 15 deadline, ULB had asked for details of around 30 officials, workers, and union leaders who were protesting against the SE’s suspension. Details such as the time remaining on their tenure, whether they were permanent or contractual employees, were sought. Since then, most union leaders, contractual workers, and even the engineering wing staff have backed down and returned to their full-time roles,” the official said.

Despite calls, Ramesh Sharma could not be reached for comment.