City stinks as sanitation workers remain on strike

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 17

The sanitation situation is getting worse in the city with the protest of the safai karamcharis entering its third day here today.

The Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) has failed to reach a compromise with the protesters.

Sanitation workers are seeking better wages and regular jobs in the corporation.

Nearly 2,000 sanitation workers have been suffering for the past 15 years as their salaries have not been enhanced and they continue to work as daily wagers. Though people are facing problems, senior officials of the Municipal Corporation have not taken any step to address the issue or make an alternative arrangement to lift the garbage from the city.

“The state government has been pushing the people to make Jammu a smart city but on the contrary, it cannot even handle the cleanliness in the city. The government should sort out the issue of sanitation workers at the earliest,” said Sushil Sharma, a local resident.

The major demands of sanitation workers include reorganisation of the JMC, scrapping the contracts to NGOs, deployment of municipal employees in wards instead of parking lots and regularisation of contractual drivers.

“As the government is totally apathetic towards our issue, we will continue the strike. This time, we want the government to meet our demands. There won’t be any compromise,” said Rinku Gill, president, Civil Safai Karamchari Union.

Sanitation workers are on an indefinite strike due to which heaps of garbage can be seen across the city, which is posing serious health risks.