At the workers’ protest in Faridabad. Express
Over 100 sanitation workers in Faridabad will take to the streets on Friday, with begging bowls in hand, to protest against the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF), which has allegedly failed to re-hire them after the sectors in which they worked were handed over to the civic body from the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). Fifteen sectors that were being managed by HUDA were transferred to the MCF last year. The protesting workers, however, were not absorbed into the MCF.
“When this transfer of sectors occurred in other places in the state, both casual and permanent workers were re-integrated into the MCF. Here, however, about 160 of us have been left unemployed,” said Naresh Kumar Shastri, who is leading the protest.
With no jobs for over a year, the workers have been tackling major issues on a day-to-day basis — names of their children being struck off the lists in schools due to non-payment of fees, electricity connections being cut and many even being thrown out of their homes, despite the rain, since they failed to pay their rent. “On July 11, we submitted a memorandum to the principal secretary, R K Khullar, and he had asked the MCF Commissioner to ensure that we were hired on contract. However, the civic body is very laidback about this. We are not certain if they even intend to do it,” said Shastri.
In a bid to draw attention to their problems, the workers had staged a demonstration on Wednesday where they walked bare-chested from the MCF office to Neelam Chowk, raising slogans against the administration. A similar demonstration Friday will see sanitation workers begging along the stretch leading up to Neelam Chowk. “By not employing workers, they have reduced us to beggars who are not even able to make ends meet. This will be symbolised in our protest,” Shastri said.
Sonal Goyal, Commissioner of the MCF, could not be reached for a comment despite repeated calls and messages. HUDA administrator, Yashendra Singh, meanwhile, said, “We cannot resolve thissince the sectors were completely transferred to the MCF a year ago. It is now up to them to decide who they want to employ. They were not obliged to absorb our staff.” He added, “Even when these sectors were under our control, sanitation workers were employed through an agency… and they decided who would do the work.”
