Garbage piles up in Amritsar as waste collectors strike work

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, July 28

Garbage continued to pile up across the city as the strike by employees of the solid waste management company over non-payment of salaries entered the second day today.

More than 700 employees of Averda, solid waste management company, which conducts door-to-door lifting of garbage in the city, are on strike over non-payment of two months of salary and other demands.

Due to the strike, garbage lifting could not be done from three lakh houses in the city. Due to non-lifting of garbage on Wednesday and Thursday, garbage has piled up in the city.

According to official data, 450 metric tonnes of garbage is collected from the city every day.

According to the health officials of the MC, the MSW had entered into a third party contract for garbage lifting. The company officials told the MC that they had paid the contractors, but he did not make further payments. Due to the strike on Wednesday and Thursday, the vehicles of the company were seen parked at Ranjit Avenue E-Block and Bhagtanwala workshop.

MC Health Officer Dr Kiran Kumar said due to non-lifting of garbage in the city, MC Commissioner Kumar Saurabh Raj held a meeting today with the officials of the Health Department and also called the company officials.

Representatives of the company will visit Amritsar tomorrow to meet the Corporation Commissioner from Delhi. He said apart from this, a delegation of the company’s employees met the MC Commissioner today.

The Commissioner told the employees that they would get their salary in any case, but the strike was causing filth in the city. The MC officials are hopeful that the matter would be sorted out tomorrow.

Meanwhile, large heaps of garbage were seen at various collection points in the city. In case the strike doesn’t end on Friday, the situation would further deteriorate.