In a major relief to residents, sanitation workers on Thursday ended their 14-day strike and resumed work in different parts of the city. While cleaning and garbage lifting operations started in some parts of the city, the workers are expected to resume duties in the remaining areas on Friday.
The Municipal Employees’ Union assured the residents of cleaning all roads and lifting accumulated garbage within the next couple of days.
“A state body meeting was under the leadership of union’s state president Naresh Kumar Shashtri in Rohtak on Thursday. We discussed the outcome of the talks held with the government on Wednesday,” said Raj Kumar, president of Municipal Employees’ Union, Karnal unit.
He said the government had assured of regularising contractual employees of MCs and fire brigade workers. “Satisfied that the government has accepted our main demands, we decided to end the strike,” he said.
Raj Kumar added that the government has also issued job security letters to workers employed under the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam (HKRN).
“Like they did during the Covid pandemic, all sanitation workers will work with full dedication to clean the city and remove garbage from roads as soon as possible,” he added.
The sanitation workers had been staging a dharna outside the Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC) since May 1 on the call of the state body. Their key demands included regularisation of jobs for sanitation and fire brigade workers, along with implementation of minimum wages. During the protest, sweeping and sanitation work across the city came to a standstill.
The situation worsened after workers associated with the door-to-door garbage collection agency joined the strike from Tuesday, leading to garbage piling up in residential areas and markets.
Before the strike was officially called off, some workers of the door-to-door garbage collection agency had resumed work in the morning.
Welcoming the decision, the residents hoped that sanitation services would be fully restored soon. Chief Sanitary Officer Surinder Chopra said special drives would be carried out over the next few days to clear the accumulated garbage.
