Sanitation workers call off their strike

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 8

The Municipal Corporation of Jalandhar (MCJ), finally bowing to the demands of the Sanitation Workers Union, has accepted to end the contractual system of hiring workers in future.

Though the workers had ended the eight-day-long strike on Thursday evening itself after speaking to Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi, the workers did not lift garbage today.

Following this, Chief Parliamentary Secretary KD Bhandari, along with Mayor Sunil Jyoti and Municipal Commissioner Gurpreet Khehra, met the Union leaders and assured them to look into their demands.

Informing this, Chandan Grewal, president, Punjab Sanitation Workers Union, said the MC authorities had accepted their demand to end the contractual system of hiring sanitation workers and would, instead, keep them on the DC rates and pay from its own fund.

Also, they assured them to explore the possibility of running small garbage processing plants and to run the solid waste management programme at their own level.

CPS Bhandari also assured them the regularisation of 54 employees who are presently working on a contractual basis with the MCJ.

The workers assured the authorities to lift garbage day and night for the next few days to clear the huge piles of garbage scattered on city roads.