A-swachh city? 12,000 sanitation staff on strike in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad on Monday did not seem like the cleanest city in the state with heaps of garbage littering its roads. The latest plight of Amdavadis was due to the strike announced by sanitation workers, who even reportedly emptied garbage on roads as a sigh of protest. While the civic body said they were not aware of the reason behind the strike and vowed to take strict action against the agitators, the protestors said they had notified the authority about their demands and the strike well in time.

Around 12,000 sanitation workers of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) went on indefinite strike starting Monday. The strike has been called by the Ahmedabad Municipal Servants' Association, and supported by workers from all zones in the city.

They said they had written to the former commissioner and had mentioned that they are going on a strike on July 23, if their demands were not met. Also, they had submitted a letter to Commissioner Vijay Nehra on July 17, mentioning the same.

"We have pending demands since long. We have written regarding the same since long. Before going on strike we have submitted a letter to the commissioner on July 17. Workers from all zones have joined the strike," said Kalpesh Makwana, general secretary of the association.

BIOMETRIC SYSTEM NOT IN AHMEDABAD

The sanitation workers had damaged the biometric attendance system when it was first introduced in 2014. The AMC tried to install it again in 2016, but the machines were destroyed at some centers. The biometric attendance system facilitated sanitation points in clean city competition, part of the Swachh Bharat Mission campaign.