Gurgaon: The sanitation workers’ strike in the city will continue till Sept 9, with union leaders warning that it could be extended indefinitely if the state govt does not issue orders implementing the demands it had agreed to.The decision was announced on Monday, the 33rd day of the strike, amid a continuing standoff over regularisation, abolition of contractual sanitation and sewerage work and other service-related demands.The latest decision came after an escalation in the protest on Sept 5, when 26 sanitation workers from Gurgaon, Manesar, Sohna, Pataudi, Farrukhnagar and Heli Mandi marched to the residence of state cabinet minister and Badshahpur MLA Rao Narbir Singh after shaving their heads as a mark of protest.The state govt had directed striking sanitation workers to resume duty by Sept 5, warning that failure to do so could invite departmental and legal action. Urban local bodies department cited sanitation as an essential service and referred to provisions of Haryana Municipal Act, 1973, and Haryana Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1974. It also alleged that striking employees were preventing others from carrying out sanitation work and that incidents involving damage to sanitation equipment had led to FIRs.The workers, however, continued their strike and demanded withdrawal of disciplinary action and release of workers arrested during the agitation. The workers said they would not call off the strike on the basis of assurances alone. Basant Kumar, Gurgaon unit president of Haryana Municipal Employees’ Union, said the govt needed to issue written orders on all their demands.“One minister says that the govt has accepted 11 demands, another says 12 demands have been accepted. However, our demand charter has 22 demands. We won’t resume work until the govt issues written orders on all our demands,” he said, alleging that repeated meetings had resulted in assurances but no formal orders implementing the commitments.The union said their demands are part of an agreement reached with the state govt on May 13. The agreement included regularisation of sanitation and sewerage workers, firemen and other municipal employees; abolition of the contract system for sanitation and sewer work; and recruitment against vacant regular posts.The strike has affected waste management across the city, with garbage accumulating at several locations, including Sadar Market, Sikanderpur, Old Delhi-Gurgaon Road and Golf Course Extension Road. At a garbage-vulnerable point in Sikanderpur, part of the roadside remained covered with waste, with two garbage trucks parked nearby. On Monday, an earthmover was seen shifting garbage from one side of the pile to another.MCG has said it is deploying outsourced workers to clear accumulated waste, while the state govt would have to take a policy decision on the workers’ demands.
