Register till January 31, Chandigarh Municipal Corporation tells waste collectors

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 24

Hoping for a breakthrough with a door-to-door waste collectors’ union on the issue of lifting garbage with vehicles, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has now asked the collectors to register with it by January 31. Otherwise, the civic body said it would be forced to hire its own manpower.

There are two major unions of collectors in the city. One faction led by OP Saini has agreed to work under the MC while the other, led by Shamsher Lotiya, has refused to do so.

“We (collectors) will register with the MC as most of our demands have been addressed. A meeting is scheduled with MC Commissioner KK Yadav on Monday,” said Saini. Till the previous deadline (January 15), only 550 collectors had registered to work in the MC waste-lifting vehicles. “Since the union has agreed. We have given the collectors January 31 as the final date to register. Or else, we will have to hire our own manpower as we cannot make residents suffer,” said Mayor Ravi Kant Sharma.

“We demand that we continue to pick waste through our rehris and collect monthly charges as per the existing system. We do not trust the promises of the MC,” added Lotiya.

CRAWFED suggests measures

Chandigarh: The Chandigarh Residents’ Association Welfare Federation (CRAWFED) proposed a few suggestions to the MC and the collectors’ unions. Federation chairman Hitesh Puri said the workers, who lifted the garbage through ‘rehris’, should not go on a strike as it caused inconvenience to residents, which might compel the MC to think about other arrangements. TNS