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Berhampur civic staff go on strike

Staff Reporter

Agitation hits sanitation badly in the city

Photo: Lingaraj Panda

ON WARPATH: Sanitary workers and employees of Berhampur Municipalty staging a protest in front of the Municipal office in Berhampur on Wednesday.

BERHAMPUR: The employees and sanitary workers of Berhampur municipality went on strike from Wednesday with a five-point charter of demand.

Around 700 agitating employees held demonstration in front of the municipality office.

The worst sufferer was the sanitation of the city. No area of the city got cleaned up except four markets whose cleaning has been privatised. But there were no municipal tractors to carry away the accumulated garbage from these markets due to the strike.

The discussions between the agitators with the chairperson of the municipality, Sulochana Swain and its executive officer in the afternoon drew no results.

Main demand

"Our first demand is implementation of pay scales recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission by the municipality," said Anil Kumar Nayak, general secretary of the sanitary workers' union and the Ganjam district secretary of the municipal employees' union.

As per the directive of the State Government all municipalities of the State and small Notified Area Councils (NAC) have implemented this pay scale. But the Berhampur municipality is yet to implement it although it received the State Government's letter about it in November last year. If this new pay scale is implemented then the municipality would have to spend Rs 12 lakhs more on the salaries.

Mr. Nayak also said the employees were not getting their salaries in time and they have not been paid since last three months. They have demanded payment of salaries within the first week of every month and immediate payment of all salary arrears.

The agitators demanded consolidated salary of temporary employees on monthly payment mode to be increased to Rs. 3000 per month from existing Rs. 2000. They want the daily wage of municipal DLRs to be increased to Rs. 70.

The employees' union alleged that around Rs. 1.65 deducted from the salaries is yet to be deposited in provident fund by the municipality.

Mr. Nayak said they would continue their strike as the authorities are yet to accept the importance of their demands.

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