Sanitation workers' strike continues, AMC files 5 FIRs

The strike launched by 12,000 sanitation workers of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), continued on Tuesday also. Garbage dumps were a common sight in the east zone and at some places, the protesters dumped garbage on the roads.

On the other hand, the civic body filed five police cases against the employees for different reasons. At Khokhara police station, a complaint was filed for hampering daily work. There was also a clash between locals and sanitation workers.

"When a van was collecting garbage, protesters tried to prevent them from doing their job. The locals interfere and asked the sanitation workers to let the van clear the garbage. That resulted in a clash," said Mukesh Gadhvi, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, AMC.

"Similarly, in Vastral, garbage was dumped on the road and a police complain was filed in Ramol police station. Two plaints were filed in Kagdapith station for hampering transportation work and deflating tyres," added Gadhvi.

The civic body has said that they have deployed more manpower to handle the situation. However, against a daily collection of around 4,000 metric tonnes of garbage, until Tuesday evening, only 2,500 metric tonnes were dumped at the Pirana dumping site.

Around 600 metric tonnes of garbage was collected and sent to the site directly by the sanitation workers.

Some workers shaved their heads as a part of the protest.

The protesters are in no mood to compromise and have asked a time slot from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into the matter. "We have written a letter to the Prime Minister to allot us time to meet. We want to meet with him to discuss our demands. First of all, we want to secure jobs for the dependents," said Kalpesh Makwana, General Secretary, Ahmedabad Municipal Servant' Association.

He further said that all these are deliberate efforts so that we don't align with the BJP during the upcoming general elections. "We want to make sure that we continue to support the BJP. We consider BJP our mother organization," said Makwana.

In 2016, when one of the unions went on strike, it lasted for 38 days. At that time, the strike was limited to four wards of the new west zone and involved 600 workers. This time, 12,000 workers are on strike, barring workers from the four wards of the new west zone.