PMC employees' indefinite strike hits Patna's sanitation system

Patna: The indefinite strike by Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) employees has begun to severely affect sanitation services across the capital, with door-to-door garbage collection and routine street cleaning disrupted in several areas.

Thousands of tonnes of waste accumulated along roads and major thoroughfares on Friday morning as municipal workers stopped work.

Garbage was reported piled up at several locations, including Kavi Raman Path in Kidwaipuri, the service lane of Atal Path in Indrapuri, Naveen Kishore Sinha Path, Mithapur Main Road and Rajiv Nagar Main Road.

Municipal garbage vehicles were also seen parked on Harding Road.

The strike began on July 30 as part of a statewide agitation involving around 8,000 permanent, daily-wage and outsourced PMC employees.

Under normal circumstances, approximately 1,200 tonnes of waste is collected from Patna every day, comprising around 60 per cent wet waste and 40 per cent dry waste.

With sanitation services disrupted during the monsoon, concerns have also grown over public health.

PMCH Superintendent Dr Rajiv Kumar Singh warned that accumulated waste in rainy conditions can increase mosquito and fly breeding, potentially raising the risk of diseases such as dengue and malaria.

The Municipal Corporation Employees' Joint Coordination Committee has raised three principal demands: regularisation of daily-wage workers, abolition of the outsourcing system and absorption of outsourced workers into municipal bodies, and restoration of ACP (Assistant City Planner) and MACP (Modified Assured Career Progression) benefits.

The employees had been conducting a phased agitation for nearly a month before launching the indefinite strike.

Protests and sit-ins were held between June 30 and July 25, while talks with the Urban Development and Housing Minister on July 28 failed to resolve the dispute.

A torchlight procession was subsequently held on July 29.

The latest agitation follows an earlier protest by sanitation workers on June 23 over delays in salary payments.

The workers had returned to duty after their contractor, Mauryan Carts, assured them that pending salaries would be cleared by June 25 and arrears arising from the salary hike would be paid in July.

With the indefinite strike now underway, the city's sanitation situation could deteriorate further if a settlement between the employees and the municipal administration is not reached soon.

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The Hans India