No work was done due to work boycott by municipal workers on Friday
Saturday, 19 November 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Several employees working in various sections of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) have accused senior MCD officials of physical and mental harassment which allegedly led to the death of an employee on Thursday. Members of the general public who visited the corporation on Friday had to return without getting their work done in view of the work boycott call by the employees of the corporation. An employee named Gaurav Gupta who worked as legal assistant in the corporation’s legal cell died after a cardiac arrest on Thursday. The protesting employees, most of whom were members of Nagar Nikay Karmchari Mahasangh (NNKM), have accused some senior officials of the corporation of allegedly forcing many to work beyond working hours and even calling them to work on Sundays. According to the president of NNKM, Naam Bahadur, the deceased employee was allegedly being mentally harassed and was forced to do four times the usual work which took a toll on his health and caused a fatal cardiac arrest on Thursday. The employees expressed their resentment towards senior officials through a work boycott on Friday and locked all the offices in the MCD premises except the municipal commissioner and mayor’s offices. Some MCD employees who wished to remain anonymous said that the municipal commissioner Manuj Goyal and another senior official have been putting additional work pressure on employees and often ask them to come to work on their days off too, which affects their physical as well as mental health. The protesting employees also appealed to the mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ to ensure that senior MCD officials treat the employees well to prevent such incidents in future. The mayor held a meeting on Friday afternoon along with the municipal commissioner and the protesting employees where they explained their issue. The mayor said that employees mentioned some points in the meeting and the valid points will be considered by MCD. “We will look into their issues as promised and they have assured me to resume their work,” said the mayor. The municipal commissioner also talked about allegations and stated that only those employees are called to work sometimes who have field jobs and nobody is harassed or forced to work in the corporation beyond usual working hours. He said that he has asked the employees to approach the MCD administration if they have any kind of issue regarding their health and work. “We also talked about work rationalisation and some issues presented by employees in the meeting. The corporation will keep them under consideration,” said Goyal.
