Sanitation workers’ strike called off after govt’s assurance

PATNA: The ongoing strike of group D staff of the Patna Municipal Corporation ( PMC) was called off late Tuesday evening after a delegation, led by leader of the union Chandra Prakash, met deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and were assured that their demands will be fulfilled

PATNA: The ongoing strike of group D staff of the Patna Municipal Corporation ( PMC) was called off late Tuesday evening after a delegation, led by leader of the union Chandra Prakash, met deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and were assured that their demands will be fulfilled.

In Patna on Tuesday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

“The PMC sanitation workers have decided to resume duty from Wednesday onwards. We will also file an affidavit in the Patna high court on Wednesday to present our views that compelled us to call the strike. The next course of action will be charted out after a fresh meeting with the deputy CM in next 10 days,” Prakash said.

On Tuesday, the sanitation workers’ strike had entered the 10th day even as Patna residents complained of stench emanating from the heaps of garbage lying unattended on the roadside.

Around 6,000 daily wage workers resorted to indefinite strike from August 21 after the UDHD officials failed to reach any workable solutions, as directed by the Patna high court in September last year, to the issues of daily-wagers. Sanitary workers had last year ended their indefinite strike on the court’s intervention. They had called the strike in support of their demands for regularisation of jobs to group D staff and ensure pay parity with daily-wagers with regular sweeping staff.

Prakash said that they went on the strike on August 27 after the UDHD refused to take note of their petition to resolve the issues as per the court’s direction. “No body from the government took of our strike notice, which was served a month and half ago, seriously. Hundreds of crores, meant for cleaning, are being swindled off, yet no one is there to hear our genuine demands,” said Prakash.

PMC commissioner Animesh Parashar has reportedly noticed financial irregularities in payment to sanitary workers engaged on contract and reported the matter to the UDHD last month for the direction, which remained elusive so far. Parashar refused to comment on strike issue by stating that the matter is sub-judice.

Moved by the situation in the wake of strike, the UDHD rushed to the court on September 1 and sought its intervention yet again to break the stalemate. Officials of the UDHD said that they had apprised the court about the steps being taken to sort out the issues of striking workers in the light of its previous order. The matter will come up for hearing on September 7.

Principal secretary of UDHD Anand Kishore could not be contacted for his comments despite repeated attempts.