Strike by sanitation workers continues as civic bodies start clean up

CHANDIGARH: The stand-off between the Haryana urban local bodies’ department and the agitating sanitation workers intensified on Saturday as the civic bodies across the state resorted to alternate ways of cleaning.
Officials and new contractual sanitation workers carried out cleaning in Fatehabad town on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.

Headed by executive officer of Fatehabad municipal council Aman Dhanda, some locals and other officials started the drive at 3am. Earthmovers and JCB machines were pressed into action to clear the roads and key places of town of garbage that had piled up due to the ongoing strike by the sanitation workers. The cleaning up went on till 6am when the protesting sanitation workers’ union leaders started reaching the spots.

“You cannot deprive the locals with the basic amenities. Since the agitating staff did not allow us to work during the day, we carried out the cleanliness drive during the night. We will continue this in the future,” said Dhanda.

Meanwhile, the agitating sanitation workers got support from Congress. Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Ashok Tanwar, who led a delegation of protesting sanitation workers’ union to the office of governor Kaptan Singh Solanki on Saturday.

The delegation submitted a memorandum with the governor asking him to direct the state government to consider the demands of the agitating workers. “The way government is dealing with their demands, it clearly shows an inhuman face of the BJP government in Haryana. These people are demanding their legitimate right to have adequate wages for the work,” said Tanwar while interacting with reporters outside the Haryana Raj Bhawan.