Garbage piles up as 250 safai sewaks go on strike in Abohar

A strike by 250 safai sewaks and monitoring staff has thrown sanitation work out of gear in Abohar.

As a result, door-to-door collection of dry and wet waste has been affected. The worst-hit areas include main post office, Abohar Club, BSNL complex and evening food market.

The staff, which works under umbrella of the Safai Sewak Welfare Society, demands regularisation of service.

Sources said the Abohar Municipal Corporation needs 600 regular safai sewaks to maintain cleanliness in 50 wards. However, the authorities aren’t able to get the decade-old strength of 350 safai sewaks revised by the successive governments. Moreover, 50 per cent of the staff has retired.

The MC outsourced safai sewaks around two years ago. The Safai Sewak Welfare Society was authorised to collect monthly fee ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 200 from domestic and commercial users. For this, it had to provide 150 carts and 25 tippers to collect waste.

Early this year, the outsourced staff launched an agitation demanding regular services against vacant posts, benefits available to the regular staff and ensuring payment of wages in the first week of each month.

The MC passed a resolution recommending the state government to accept their demands but the Local Bodies Department raised certain concerns since there was perhaps no precedent to put the outsourced employees on regular rolls.

It also surfaced that fee collection from houses and commercial establishments was not sufficient to facilitate regular payment to the outsourced workers.

In such circumstances, the outcome of the strike seems to be unpredictable, sources privy to the problem said.