The talks between Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal and agitating safai karmacharis held here on Wednesday failed to yield any positive result.
The safai karamchairs announced to continue their strike after their meeting with Chief Minister and Urban local Bodies Minister Kavita Jain.
Around 30,000 employees including safai karamcharis of over 80 municipal corporations, municipal committees and councils had begun their strike on last Wednesday. Garbage has piled up in different areas of Haryana following the strike.
The safai karamchari unions will now hold a meeting in Rohtak on Thursday to decide the future course of action.
After the meeting, Manohar lal while talking to the mediapersons said that consensus has been reached on some demands of safai karamcharis and he was hopeful that they would call off their strike.
The Chief Minister said that we have assured the safai karamcharis unions that all their genuine issues would be sorted out within next eight days.
When asked if the government is considering to impose ESMA in the state, Manohar lal said that we are hopeful that the agitating employees will withdraw their strike by Wednesday evening only.
Urban local Bodies Minister, Kavita Jain said that various unions had met the Chief Minister and Safai Karamchari Union affiliated with Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh has agreed to call off their strike.
Referring to the demands of agitating employees, the Minister said that the State Government has decided to constitute a committee on equal pay for equal work under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary. The Committee would submit its report before May 31, she said.
Jain said that it has also been decided to enhance the safai vishesh bhatta from Rs 300 to Rs 1,000.
It was also decided that no new outsourcing contracts on supply of safai karamcharis or sewermen would be done in future by any UlB and also the present outsourcing policy contracts would continue till the date of its expiry and thereupon, the outsourced manpower would be shifted to the municipal rolls, she said.
From now onward, the PF and ESI would be directly deposited by the UlBs in the accounts of the individual employees and a vigilance enquiry will be conducted on the non-description of PF and ESI in the accounts of various employees by the concerned contractors, said the Minister.
Jain also said that regarding the issue of outsourced fire staff, there are 1366 drivers and firemen at present in the outsource category, of which 365 are drivers and 1001 are firemen.
Under the new service rules, fire operators have to have three qualifications including XII pass, heavy duty driving license and basic course of fire fighting. Out of 1355, 559 have all these three basic qualifications and qualify for applying to HSSC which has advertised 1646 posts of fire operators. The remaining 807 do not fulfill the requisite qualifications on at least one of the three grounds, she informed.
The government has also decided that HSSC may be requested to re-advertise the posts carrying the amendments that if anyone provides an affidavit that they would clear the XI within two years of the appointment and would obtain the heavy duty driving license and pass the basic course of fire fighting within one year of the appointment, then subject to this affidavit, they may be made eligible for applying to the post.
Also for experience, one mark for every one year of completed service or experience would be given. Till the fulfillment of these conditions, these employees would be on probation, she added.
The main demands of the agitating employees are regularisation of 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.