Saturday, 19 February 2022 | PNS | Nainital
The sanitation workers of Nainital municipality undertook a tool-down strike on Friday alleging that they had not been paid their salary for three months. While the sanitation system crumbled in town, the sanitation workers staged a protest in the municipality office and demanded immediate payment of their salaries. Though the outsourced workers continued the sanitation work, the level of sanitation in the lake city was affected by the regular workers staying off work.
Uttarakhand Devbhumi Karmachari Sangh head Dharmesh Prasad and general secretary Sonu Sahdev alleged that the sanitation workers had not received their salaries for three months. The workers are facing a financial crisis due to the delay in payment of their salaries. The employee leaders averred that the workers are neither able to pay their loan installments nor pay the school fees of their children. Sahdev further alleged that the workers are being made to work more but the municipality is not paying their salaries on time. The workers will boycott work for an indefinite period if their due salaries are not paid without any further delay, he added.
Meanwhile, the municipality chairman Sachin Negi and executive officer Ashok Kumar Verma said that the December salary is being disbursed but the workers are also demanding the salary for January. The January salary will also be paid soon. About five dozen workers had received their December salary while the remaining workers are demanding two months’ salary which will be paid to them soon, they said. A delegation from the municipality is expected to talk to the chief secretary by Monday to ensure the needful. After returning from there, the January salaries of the workers will also be disbursed, they added.
