Sacked Amritsar MC staff protest against termination

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 28

All 130 employees fired from the streetlight wing of the Municipal Corporation staged a demonstration at the MC head office in Ranjit Avenue. Addressing the gathering, president of the employees union Bhupinder Singh said that on September 30, the MC had sacked 130 streetlight wing employees and 20 sewermen from their job without giving any reason and prior information. He said that protesting against the MC move, the sacked employees met Minister for Local Government Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar, Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu, MC Commissioner Kumar Saurabh Raj, MLAs and councillors along with the MC officials and expressed their resentment against the termination order.

Minister for Local Government Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar and Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu gave them the assurance that the sacked employees would be reinstated even as union leader Bhupinder Singh said that the employees had not been reinstated even nearly a month after the sacking.

The union activists claimed that some of the terminated employees and their family members had fallen ill due to shock. He said the protest was peaceful as of now but the union plans to observe hunger strike against the MC decision in the days ahead and warned that the struggle would be intensified.

Meanwhile, Municipal Commissioner Kumar Saurabh Raj met the the employees staging protest at the MC head office. The MC Commissioner said that Kumar Saurabh Raj assured that Local Government Minister Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar would meet them and resolve their issue.

It is worth mentioning here that the Municipal Corporation fired 130 employees of the streetlight wing and 20 sewermen working with the Mohalla Sudhar Committees on September 30. The employees had been working in the MC for the last six years, while the 20 sewermen were working on collector rates for the last several years.

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