Haryana Urban local Bodies Minister, Kavita Jain on Sunday asked the safai karamcharis to end their strike and resume their work.
“Most of their demands have already been met by the State Government. The demand of regularisation of contractual employees of municipality in urban areas of Haryana is unjustified as the court has put stay on regularisation of employees under various policies since 2016,” said the Minister while speaking during a function organised in Sonipat.
Around 30,000 employees of over 80 municipal corporations, municipal committees and councils had began a strike on Wednesday in Haryana and announced to extend it till May 14.
Following this, garbage has piled up in different areas of Haryana.
The main demands of the striking employees are regularisation of nearly 20,000 contractual employees and equal pay for equal work.
The other major demands of the striking employees include hike in minimum pay of safai karamcharis, implementation of cashless medical facilities for contractual employees, increasing allowances of both permanent and contractual employees, risk allowance and better safety equipment for those engaged in cleaning sewers.
A day before, the Haryana Government had in a statement issued, stated that in view of the protest, the employees have been interrupting cleanliness and emergency services.
“The demand of protesting employees was unjustifiable because on September 2, 2016, the double bench of the court had put stay on all regularisation policies issued on and after June 16, 2014. Thereafter, the Chief Secretary had directed all Head of Departments to ensure compliance of these orders. In this direction, it would not be possible to regularise contractual employees,” the State Government had said.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday asked the Haryana Government to redress the grievances of safai karamcharis.
Criticizing the State Government for not resolving the issues of protesting employees, Hooda said that the government should immediately accept the justifiable demands of the employees.