MATHURA: Services of a contractual sanitation worker were terminated after framed portraits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were found in his garbage cart, officials said here on Sunday.
The matter came to the fore on Saturday, when a video circulated on social media showing a sanitation worker, Bobby, posted in the Generalganj area, carrying portraits of Modi and Adityanath in his wheelbarrow.
The videos showed some people accosting Bobby as he was going about his business and asking him about the portraits in the barrow with garbage.
The sanitation worker said he found the portraits in a street and he was just doing his job.
The people took out the two portraits -- a third was nearly destroyed -- as some others recorded the act on mobile, which they eventually shared on social media later.
One of them washed the portraits and took them with him, another video that surfaced on social media showed.
Contractual sanitation worker Bobby was found lax in his work and his services were terminated, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Mathura-Vrindavan Nagar Nigam, Satyendra Kumar Tiwari, said.
Bobby, however, said that he was only doing his job and collecting the garbage.
He said it was not his mistake that there were portraits of the PM and the UP CM in the garbage.
"Before initiating action, at least what actually happened, in reality, should be considered and it should have been ascertained whether I was at fault or not," he said.