To ensure that cleanliness and day-to-day garbage collection are not affected in Shimla due to the ongoing indefinite strike of the Shimla Environment Heritage Conservation and Beautification (SHEB) Society, the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has set up garbage collection points in all of its 34 wards.
As per the corporation, as many as 229 garbage collection points have been set up across the town. People have been asked to bring the garbage from their houses to these garbage collection points. The garbage will be collected from the people at the designated collection points.
SMC Joint Commissioner Bhuwan Sharma said vehicles of the corporation will be present at these collection points, where people can hand over their garbage to the corporation.
“Vehicles will be available at these collection points till 10:00 am, so that everyone can hand over the garbage to the corporation. Cleanliness in the town is the priority of the corporation, for which appropriate steps have been taken," he said.
SMC Mayor Surender Chauhan, who himself took charge of collecting garbage from households, said more vehicles will be deployed to collect garbage from across the town from Monday onwards.
“The corporation also plans to engage more labourers for garbage collection. There will be no compromise in maintaining cleanliness in the state’s capital," he said.
Speaking about the SEHB Society’s workers’ demands, the Mayor said an Annual General Meeting (AGM) has been called on June 4, where discussions regarding their demands will be held and their demands will be considered.
On May 15, hundreds of SEHB society workers went on an indefinite strike against the corporation’s decision to abolish the annual 10 percent increment in their salaries. The society is mainly responsible for door-to-door garbage collection and sanitation work.
To prevent the workers from going on strike, the Deputy Commissioner also issued orders, prohibiting the workers from participating in any agitation or strike under the Himachal Pradesh Essential Service (Maintenance) Act, 1973; however, the workers went ahead with their strike.
As a result of their strike, garbage collection in the town took a hit, causing inconveniences to locals. To ensure that garbage collection is not interrupted, the corporation decided to collect the garbage from all the households in the town.
Meanwhile, the district committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has extended its support to SEHB society workers over their strike and has demanded that the corporation immediately fulfill all of their demands.
