Fatehabad, February 8: Hundreds of sanitation workers, under the banner of the All Sanitation Workers Struggle Committee, staged a massive protest on the city's streets on Sunday to press for their demands. Led by the Municipal Employees Union and the Rural Sanitation Workers Union, the workers gathered at the Municipal Council office, from where they marched in a protest procession through Lal Batti Chowk to the grain market. The protesters then reached the office of local MLA Balwan Singh Daulatpuria and submitted a memorandum to him. After listening to the sanitation workers' problems, MLA Balwan Singh Daulatpuria acknowledged their demands as legitimate.
He assured the employees that he would raise these demands prominently during the upcoming assembly session and would pressure the government to resolve them. The protest was presided over by Naresh Rana, Block President of the Municipal Employees Union, and Sunil Kumar from the Rural Sanitation Workers Union, and conducted by Block Secretary Omprakash Lot.
Addressing the protest, State Senior Vice President of the union Ramesh Toshamad, District President Vijay Dhaka, Block President of Saksham Rajpal Mittathal, and employee leaders Begraj and Naresh Rana launched sharp attacks on the BJP government.
They said that in the last 11 years, the government has not regularized a single sanitation worker or sewer worker. Neither adequate equipment nor safety kits are being provided for sanitation work, putting the lives of the employees at risk. Although the demands were considered legitimate in meetings with the Chief Minister's OSD Bharat Bhushan Bharti and departmental minister Vipul Goyal, no official letter has been issued yet. The struggle committee demanded that all temporary employees be regularized as per the recent Supreme Court judgments. The contract system for sanitation and sewer work should be completely abolished.
A letter should be immediately issued regarding the salary of Rs. 26,000 for rural sanitation workers and Rs. 27,000 for urban workers, as announced by the Chief Minister. 70,000 sanitation workers and 20,000 sewer workers should be permanently recruited in the state according to the population. A monthly risk allowance of Rs. 5,000 should be implemented for hazardous work. In addition, the employees also demanded the restoration of the old pension scheme, a ban on online portal attendance, and the reinstatement of laid-off employees. The employee leaders stated unequivocally that if the government does not change its stubborn attitude, thousands of sanitation workers will stop work and take to the streets in a nationwide strike on February 12.
If a solution is still not reached after this, the All Sanitation Workers' Struggle Committee will form teams across Haryana and declare an all-out struggle. Many employees were present on this occasion, including Ramniwas Sharma, District Secretary of the Sarva Karmachari Sangh, Block Secretary Inder Ghasi, Veeru Ratti, Amit Gill, Satyawan Tak, Rajaram, Pawan Chinalia, Pawan Kumar, Block President of the Rural Employees Union, and Gulzari.