The sanitation workers strike rocked the last sitting of Haryana Assembly’s monsoon session on Tuesday and uncertainty over breaking the deadlock continued even as the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government blamed Congress for “vitiating” brotherhood in the state and backing “legally untenable demand” to regularise contractual sanitation workforce.
Soon after the Question Hour, urban local bodies minister Vipul Goel made an impromptu statement in the House, listing the steps taken by the government to end the stir. The move drew strong objections from the Congress, which questioned how the minister could make a statement when the Opposition had already sent an adjournment motion on the issue to the Speaker. The Congress, however, kept raising slogans in the House. Amid noisy scenes, Speaker Harvinder Kalyan ruled that the Congress could not prevent a minister from making a statement. As the din continued, the chief minister interjected, accusing the Congress of politicising a sensitive issue. The Congress members were on their feet no sooner than cabinet minister Krishan Kumar Bedi, who had held talks with representatives of the sanitation workers, pitched in. “Congress doesn’t want this strike to end.
Following a number of rounds of talks held with the striking employees, Goel informed the House, the government has addressed 12 out of the total 13 demands. Bedi said 12 of the sanitation workers’ 13 demands had been accepted and that the only major issue now was their demand about regularisation of service.
“Minister can give a statement,” the Speaker reiterated. “Under which rule minister was allowed to speak,” Raghuvir Kadian, a former Speaker and veteran Congress MLA, asked even as Kalyan again said that minister’s reply was well within the rules. “We are trying to resolve the matter,” he said, adding that job regularisation demand needs legal backing before any decision is taken. I shall expose the Congress before the public,” Bedi said, accusing the Congress of instigating the sanitation workforce. “The matter is very serious, but the Congress is trying to vitiate the atmosphere of the state,” Bedi said, while Congress members continued their protest and kept interrupting the minister. He said the workers wanted the government to formulate a policy to regularise employees who had completed two years of service.
The minister said six meetings were held with the striking workers, the latest meeting was held on Monday night.
