Grewal flays Mayor’s remarks

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 22

A day after Mayor Jagdish Raja released a statement terming the protest call given by the safai karamcharis as wrong, unreasonable and unlawful, Punjab Safai Mazdoor Federation president Chandan Grewal today held a press conference. While targeting the Mayor, he said those who were not doing anything lawful, were calling their (safai karamcharis’) announcement ‘unlawful’.

Grewal said two days ago, his party MLA held a dharna and blocked the highway, which was unlawful.

Protesting against the “faulty design” of the PAP flyover, residents of Guru Nanakpura, led by MLA Rajinder Beri, had blocked the Jalandhar-Amritsar national highway for an hour.

Grewal said according to the Supreme Court guidelines, the safai karamcharis and safai sewaks should not be recruited as contractual workers.

“Still, the Municipal Corporation has passed the agenda of recruitment of 160 safai karamcharis on a contractual basis in the General House meeting. Also, the Mayor in the statement has said those who are recruited on a contractual basis would be regularised in a year or two, I would like to ask him that doesn’t he know about those staff who have been working on a contractual basis for the past 10 years. Have they been regularised yet?,” Grewal said.

He also demanded resignation from the Mayor and said two years had been passed since the Mayor assumed charge, but no work had been done as nothing is visible on ground.

The Mayor had said already there was a shortage of safai karamcharis in the city.

“I would appeal that they should keep on working. There is a problem in the city and they all must continue working,” he had said.

To this, Grewal said if the agenda to recruit 160 sewer men on a contractual basis would not be dismissed, they would stop the work, for which the Mayor and the MC Commissioner would be held responsible. He said: “We do not want city residents to suffer at all. But we are fighting for people who belong to this strata. We will keep on fighting for them.”