Striking pourakarmikas in Mysuru will resume their work from Tuesday with the State-wide indefinite agitation withdrawn on Monday following assurance from the State government. The pourakarmikas were on strike seeking regularisation of their services and other demands for the past four days.
Former Mysuru Mayor Narayan, who was leading the agitation in Bengaluru, told The Hindu over phone that the strike has been called off as the government has “given in writing to look into their demands in three months”. “Considering the government’s promise after our meeting, the pourakarmikas across the State will resume their work from Tuesday,” he said.
Mr. Narayan added: “We will wait for three months for the Chief Minister to act on our demands.”
Mysuru City Corporation Health Officer D.G. Nagaraj said cleanliness services that were affected by the strike will resume from Tuesday.
Out of 2,600 pourakarmikas in the MCC, 530 were on the MCC rolls and the rest were on contract getting direct payment from the MCC. Barring 530 permanent civic workers, the rest were on strike, leaving the sanitation services disrupted. The MCC struggled to deal with mounting solid wastes with people engaged in transportation of garbage also joining the strike.
The city centers were badly affected as heaps of garbage were seen strewn on the roadsides with daily collection of waste affected. Devaraja Market, one of the busiest markets of the city, had accumulated heaps of vegetable and fruit wastes.
Door-to-door collection of waste had also come to a halt and the permanent pourakarmikas were collecting bulk wastes from the city centers. The striking workers were also urging the permanent pourakarmikas to join their strike.
One of their major demands is that the people engaged in cleanliness work, irrespective of the nature of work, should be treated as civic workers and their services be regularised. The striking sanitation workers also demanded pension and retirement benefits.
