Chandigarh, 22 December 2024: Chandigarh faced a major sanitation disruption on Saturday after door-to-door garbage collectors went on strike, leaving streets littered with uncollected waste.
The protest, which began at 8 am at the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Sector 25, saw workers demanding better pay in light of their increasing workload. With Sunday being a non-working day, residents faced the inconvenience of overflowing bins, exacerbating concerns about public health.
The strike was organized by the workers in response to an expanded workload. “The Municipal Corporation initially tasked us with collecting garbage only from residential areas, but last year our duties were extended to include commercial areas—without any adjustment in our salaries,” said Dharamvir Rana, president of the garbage collection union.
“We have also been waiting for a new MoU that includes fair provisions, which has yet to be addressed.”
In response to the strike, Municipal Commissioner Amit Kumar has scheduled a meeting with the collectors on December 26 to discuss their demands.
Rana warned that if no resolution is reached, workers might resume their strike. “If no action is taken, we will have no choice but to strike again, and the responsibility for that will rest with the administration,” he stated.
Since its inception in 2020, the city’s door-to-door garbage collection service has been expanded to cover over 2.4 lakh households, providing segregated waste collection for dry waste, wet waste, and more.
The Municipal Corporation (MC) has signed agreements with 926 individual collectors since 2021, but the terms are currently under review, with a new MoU expected to be finalized soon.
