Gurugram sanitation staff told to end strike or face action

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, November 30

With over 2,000 sanitation workers continuing to virtually hold Gurugram to ransom for the past 50 days, the local authorities have given them the final ultimatum to end their strike by Monday or face criminal proceedings.

MCG Commissioner PC Meena and DC Nishant Yadav held a meeting with the striking employees late in the evening and promised to take their demands to the government. Calling sanitation work an essential service, the two asked the workers to return to work by Monday or face action.

“What they seek is not for the MCG to decide. The decision on this has to be taken by the government. The striking workers are disrupting an essential service. They will face serious action if the strike does not end on Monday. We have already terminated the services of around 50 workers and 400 are in the line of fire,” Meena said. “We will act against them for disrupting essential services,” the DC added.

Despite being told to vacate their protest site at the MCG office and move to a designated site in

Sector 37, the protesters have refused to comply.

Amidst the ongoing dispute between the authorities and the workers, Gurugram has turned into a mess. Garbage is piling up and the streets have not been cleaned for the past 50 days. The situation is especially bad in old Gurugram, where every nook and corner and major roads have turned into dumpyards.

While some builders have hired sanitation workers, the HSVP sectors and MCG colonies are facing the worst crisis in a decade. The alternative arrangements made by the MCG are not up to the mark.

“The situation is worsening by the day. The streets have not been cleaned for the past 50 days. Many societies have hired their own sanitation staff, but the old HSVP sectors are the worst-hit. We have written to the government to transfer sanitation management to the RWAs as the MCG has failed on that front,” said Praveen Yadav, president of the United Gurugram RWAs.

400 in line of fire

The striking workers are disrupting essential services. They will face a serious action, if the strike does not end on Monday. We have already terminated the services of around 50 workers and 400 are in the line of fire. — PC Meena, mcg commissioner