Patna civic body workers to go on indefinite strike from Thursday

PATNA: Employees of the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC), belonging to groups C and D, have decided to go on an indefinite strike from Thursday. They will stage a protest for fulfilment of their 18-chartered demands that include regularization of daily wagers, promotion of employees, pension benefits and salary increment.
Patna Nagar Nigam Staff Union president Chandra Prakash Singh told this newspaper on Wednesday that activities like door-to-door trash collection, sweeping of roads and work at pump stations would be suspended from September 10 “if our demands are not met”.
The civic body employees, including sanitation workers, pump operators, masons, drivers of auto-tippers and outsourced staff, will demonstrate under the banner of Patna Municipal Corporation Joint Staff Coordination Committee (PMCJSCC). The body has already submitted a letter with all the demands to PMC commissioner Himanshu Sharma and the urban development and housing department.
“The PMC passed a proposal to regularize 400 sanitation workers, who had completed 10 years of their service. However, only 112 employees have been regularized so far. We want regularization of the other staff, who have been working with the civic body for a long time,” said Singh, who is also the president of the PMCJSCC.
The PMC commissioner, who interacted with the representatives of the PMCJSCC, said, “The PMC always considers the genuine demands of its employees. We have, therefore, asked them not to disrupt any work. If they do so, action will be taken against them.”
Sources claimed that nothing fruitful happened after the meeting and the PMCJSCC asked the employees to stage a protest in all the six circles.