Haryana sets up ministerial committee as sanitation strike continues

With the strike by Safai karamcharis (municipal sanitation staff) in the state going into the 15th day and heaps of garbage piled up across towns and cities, the Haryana government on Wednesday set up a committee to hold meetings with leaders of the protestors and work out on agreement on their demands.

The ministerial committee, to be headed byAUrban Local Bodies Minister Kavita Jain, will meet the striking sanitation workers on Thursday.

Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishan Kumar Bedi told media here that besides Jain, he (Bedi) and Minister of State for Cooperation Manish Grover, are members of the committee.

"The committee and a team of officers concerned would hold a meeting with the leaders of employees and work out an agreement on all issues so that the strike by safai karamcharis could be called off at the earliest," Bedi said.

Safair Karamchari Sangh (SKS) president Naresh Kumar Shastri said that a 12-member delegation will meet the ministerial committee here on Thursday.

The agitating safai karamcharis are demanding immediate regularization of contractual staff, removal of contractors in sanitation work, equal pay for equal work and fulfillment of other demands.

The striking staff on Wednesday held protests outside the residences of BJP legislators across Haryana.

--IANS

js/vd