Sonepat bears the brunt of sanitation workers' strike
Cleanliness in the city has gone for a toss as the sanitation workers of the Municipal Corporation (MC), who have been working with a private agency, have been on strike for the past eight days.
The workers staged a protest at the MC gate today, raising slogans for their demands. The eight-day-long strike has paralysed the sanitation system in the city. Picking garbage from roadside markets has been badly hit due to the stir.
As per information, the MC had allotted the tender for cleanliness in the city to two private agencies – Pooja Consulation Company and IND Sanitation Solution Company – by dividing the city into two zones for two years. The MC was paying approximately Rs 3.40 crore to both companies. But the contract ended in August last year and no new tender has been allotted so far.
Bharat Kandera, president, Nagar Palika Karamchari Sangh, said approximately 1,000 sanitation workers didn’t get salary for the past three months. The employees were forced to face a lot of problems in their daily life due to financial problems. He further alleged that the employees were waiting for their salary for a long time, but no one heeded to their genuine demands, adding that no facilities were provided to sanitation workers as per the norms decided upon.
He also said that they had been sitting on the dharna for the past eight days, but no official had come to resolve their problems. In 2018, the sanitation workers went on strike for 16 days, and at that time, it was decided that all sanitation employees would be shifted to payroll. After which employees were shifted to payroll in the entire state except Sonepat, he alleged.
Meanwhile, the effect of the sanitation workers’ strike has been witnessed in the city as the garbage has piled up in all markets, roads and main areas of the city. Residents and commuters were forced to face a lot of problems due to stink from the heaps of garbage everywhere. Sanjay Singla, president, Vyapar Mandal, and Sanjay Verma, chairman, Vyapar Mandal, raised concern over the poor sanitation conditions in the city.
The government should intervene in the matter to resolve the matter at the earliest as the condition of the city was worsening day by day, Singla said.
