Hoshiarpur: Former Cabinet Minister and senior BJP leader Tikshan Sood stated that the city's condition has deteriorated due to piles of garbage, creating a risk of epidemics spreading during the summer season. He emphasized that the government must resolve this issue immediately. Today, Mr. Sood, along with other senior BJP leaders including former Mayor Shiv Sood, Councillor Surinder Pal Bhatti, Shiv Kumar Kaku, Yashpal Sharma, and Babbu Ajowalia, visited the old Municipal Council building to join the strike and protest of the corporation's contractual and outsourced employees, assuring them of all possible support. They also visited the Municipal Corporation premises to express solidarity with hundreds of contractual sanitation workers (Safai Sevaks) and sewermen whose strike has entered its 13th day.
On this occasion, Councillor Surinder Pal Bhatti and Shiv Sood mentioned that whatever facilities the employees received were granted during the BJP-Akali regime. Mr. Sood added, "During our government's tenure, we framed a policy and began regularizing employees in the Forest Department, Local Bodies, and several other departments. The Aam Aadmi Party promised to regularize contractual employees before the elections, but even after four and a quarter years in power, the situation remains unchanged." He pointed out that employees working under contractors perform more work than regular staff but receive a mere 10,000 to 12,000 rupees per month, which is insufficient to cover their family expenses. He termed it an absolute injustice to pay them such a meager amount while extracting the same level of work as regular employees.
He further stated that the AAP government has neither regularized the employees as promised, nor restored the Old Pension Scheme, implemented the Pay Commission, or released the outstanding dearness allowance (DA) installments. This government has proven to be completely untruthful. He concluded that the working class, which brought this government to power based on the assurance of fulfilling their demands, will now become the cause of the government's downfall.