A day after the mayor Manoj Garg was assaulted allegedly by some followers of the State Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj over an anti- encroachment drive, the staff members of the Nagar Nigam have threatened to stage hunger strike if those responsible for the incident are not arrested within 24 hours. They served handwritten memorandum to the district magistrate on Friday, saying that they would be left with no other option but to go for an indefinite hunger strike unless the district administration arrests those who allegedly beat the mayor with lathis and rods. Besides, they locked up the Nagar Nigam office and burnt Maharaj in his effigy at Chandracharya Chownk while they took out a rally. Notably, clash had broken out on Thursday morning as a civic body team led by the mayor had reached Prem Nagar ashram owned by Maharaj to remove encroachments allegedly put up by the ashram inmates.
Meanwhile, garbage has piled up at various parts of the city on Friday as the workers refrained from undertaking the garbage cleaning works in protest against the assault on the mayor. Things were grim in areas like Kankkhal, Subhash Nagar, lodha Mandi and parts of Jwalapur and northern Haridwar with the people being forced to grapple with the garbage pileups. Venting anger over the sorry state of things, a resident of Vivek Vihar Smriti Sharma said that they were at the receiving end of the fight some high profile leaders are waging against one another. “But why should we sufferIJ” she asked.