Drawing inspiration from a similar stink raised by their protesting counterparts in Delhi, the sanitation workers of Meerut have also not collected garbage from residents since they began their strike on Thursday.
Meerut in Uttar Pradesh has become a giant garbage tip, with the city's striking municipal sanitation workers dumping fetid trash on all major roads over the last four days. They want a pay hike announced last year to be implemented.
Drawing inspiration from a similar stink raised by their protesting counterparts in Delhi, almost 4000 sanitation workers of Meerut have also not collected garbage from residents since they began their strike on Thursday. Besides piles of rotting garbage, people have been forced to see animal carcasses hung all over the city. The garbage on the roads caused traffic jams across the city over the weekend.
The Uttar Pradesh state government passed an order last year doubling the sanitation workers' salaries to Rs. 14,490 a month from Rs. 7490. The raise was supposed to come into effect this month. But the municipal corporation has not started paying the higher wages, claiming that over 2,200 workers have been illegally employed.
A meeting yesterday between the local administration and the striking workers failed to end the crisis. The corporation was scheduled to meet again later today but that meeting has been adjourned till tomorrow. The workers said if there is no decision by tomorrow, the strike will continue and some of them will go on a hunger strike.