Sanitation strike reaches Haryana Assembly; Congress demands resolution

Opposition Congress MLAs on Tuesday raised the issue of the ongoing strike by sanitation workers in Haryana in the state assembly, demanding that the government accept their demands and resolve the issue.

The sanitation workers have been on strike for nearly a month, with regularisation being their main demand.

Several Congress MLAs launched a sharp attack on the government over the issue, saying heaps of garbage had accumulated at many places and people were facing inconvenience.

They raised the matter towards the end of the Question Hour and later during the Zero Hour.

Sharp exchanges were witnessed between the opposition legislators and treasury benches on the subject, with the government telling the Congress not to “politicise” the issue.

Congress MLA Ashok Arora supported the workers' regularisation demand, while MLA Geeta Bhukkal said the sanitation workers have faced police action at many places and claimed that some women workers were even “pulled with their hair”.

INLD MLA Aditya Devi Lal accused the BJP government in the state of subjecting the sanitation workers to "injustice and oppression". He said if the political will exists, a law can be enacted to regularise the sanitation workers.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, however, informed the assembly that the state government was continuously working to resolve the issues concerning Safai Karamcharis and had already accepted 12 of their demands.

He said some matters presently under consideration of the courts cannot be resolved immediately at the government level, and appropriate action will be taken in accordance with the directions issued by the courts.

Saini said Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Vipul Goel had already made a detailed statement in the House on the issue, apprising both the Opposition and the people of the state of the entire situation.

The chief minister said such issues have arisen in the past as well and were also “prevalent during the Congress regime”. “Unlike then, rather than turning away from these concerns, the present government is continuously working towards finding solutions,” he said.

Minister Krishen Kumar Bedi hit out at the Congress, claiming they don't have any sympathy with the sanitation workers but were only trying to politicise the issue and spoil the atmosphere.

Earlier, the opposition MLAs took exception to a detailed statement made by Minister Vipul Goel, flagging that their adjournment motion regarding the sanitation workers' strike had not been taken up.

The chair later told the opposition that their motion had been rejected, following which Congress MLAs raised slogans in the House and said the demands of sanitation workers should be fulfilled.

Countering them, Bedi said that under the erstwhile Congress government in the state, a policy for regularisation after 10 years of service had been introduced. “But they are expecting the present government to regularise workers just after two years,” he said.

However, he said, the government was concerned and trying to resolve the issue at the earliest.

Recently, a meeting between representatives of the sanitation workers and the state government was held in Kurukshetra, but it remained inconclusive.

Bedi had represented the government during the meeting.