BHOPAL: There is some relief for residents of Bhopal, the country's cleanest state capital, as the indefinite strike by sanitation workers employed by urban local bodies across Madhya Pradesh has reportedly ended. The agitation had left the capital choking on heaps of uncollected garbage.
The strike, which began on November 4, was called off on Friday night following a meeting between representatives of the sanitation workers and Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav.
The breakthrough came after intervention by Krishna Gaur, a two-time BJP MLA and Minister of State.
With the strike ending on Friday night, officials of the Bhopal district administration, led by District Collector Priyank Mishra, joined sanitation workers in clearing the accumulated garbage, beginning with Number 10 Market.
The development came after the state capital witnessed mounting garbage piles on Dhanteras, the first day of the five-day Diwali festival. While families were busy cleaning their homes ahead of the festival, heaps of uncollected waste were visible across Bhopal and several other parts of Madhya Pradesh.
Ahead of Diwali, the state capital was choking on its own waste. The strike by municipal sanitation workers reportedly left more than 2,500 tonnes of garbage uncollected over three days. The stench had spread to some of the city's most protected and upmarket neighbourhoods as well as its busiest markets.
Residents heading out to shop for Dhanteras on Friday had to negotiate overflowing bins and roadside garbage heaps, from Char Imli, home to ministers and senior IAS and IPS officers, to the lanes around the Mantralaya and Vallabh Bhavan.
Garbage was also seen near the Hanuman and Sai temples in Char Imli and along Atal Path, which had hosted a BJP rally just two days earlier. On Kolar Road, waste had accumulated for three days along the central verge of the six-lane stretch opposite a guest house. Residents of Budhwara market also reported animal carcasses lying on the road.
At a busy intersection in Awadhpuri, home to one of the city's popular eateries, stray dogs competed with cattle for food discarded in plastic bags. Pedestrians and two-wheeler riders struggled to navigate the road, where garbage was strewn everywhere and packs of stray dogs fought over the waste.
According to local media reports, Bhopal generates around 800-850 tonnes of waste every day. More than 400 garbage collection vehicles, which normally make two to three trips daily to the city's 17 garbage transfer stations, remained idle. With bins overflowing and no collection taking place, some residents reportedly resorted to burning rubbish, adding to the pollution. The Municipal Corporation had not made any alternative arrangements so far.
The strike widened on Friday when workers reportedly stopped supplying water through tankers. Poorer settlements were among the first to feel the impact. Officials, however, claimed that there had been no major disruption to water supply across the city's 2.30 lakh tap connections, as valves had been opened in several areas.
The sanitation workers have been pressing for four major demands: a pay hike, compassionate appointments, regularisation of jobs and an end to the contract system. Their primary demand is an increase in the monthly wage from Rs 10,500 to Rs 25,000.
Vasi Sultan, state secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor Trade Union, said the municipal corporation's workers employed on a 25-day wage basis, numbering around 7,000 according to him, could not run a household on Rs 10,500 a month.
Maganlal Jhanjhot, the union's state president, said the agitation was not limited to sanitation workers. Computer operators, clerks and employees from the water, fire, building permission, encroachment, electrical, mechanical, horticulture and planning departments had also joined the protest. He had warned that the agitation would turn into a "fight to the finish".
The protesting employees claimed that more than one lakh workers were participating in the agitation across Madhya Pradesh. Municipal sources said around 6,000 employees from departments other than sanitation had joined the strike in Bhopal.
The agitation began with a sit-in at Shahjahan Park on November 3. Workers said no senior official had come forward to receive their memorandum, prompting them to block traffic at Jahangirabad Square. Subsequent talks with Sanjay Dubey, the state's Additional Chief Secretary for Urban Development and Housing, reportedly ended without a resolution. Garbage collection came to a halt on November 4 and remained suspended until the strike was called off.
However, Bhopal was not the only city affected by the agitation, with several other parts of the state also reportedly witnessing mounting garbage piles.
Around 350 employees of the Shivpuri Municipal Council in northern Madhya Pradesh are on strike, with waste accumulating in the town's markets.
In Sironj town in Vidisha district, local BJP MLA Umakant Sharma took up a broom and swept the streets for around two hours on Wednesday night and again on Thursday.
In Khilchipur town in Rajgarh district, tailor Dinesh Kumar Namdev, popularly known as Pappu, shut his shop on Thursday and spent around 90 minutes clearing garbage from Subhash Chowk to Sarafa Bazaar using a broom and handcart. He subsequently dumped the collected waste outside the town.
