Waste pickers of Swachh Sahakari, concerned in door-to-door rubbish assortment within the metropolis, on Monday protested exterior the civic headquarters of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to nominate a non-public company by way of a young course of. Junk assortment.
The protest was led by veteran social activist Baba Adhav.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Supriya Sule and Congress chief Mohan Joshi prolonged their help to the motion and addressed the protesters.
“The waste pickers have been doing door-to-door assortment truthfully for thus a few years. However, efforts are being made to grab their livelihood from personal businesses by way of the tender course of for the job.
Stating that the rag pickers had been working exhausting even in the course of the pandemic, Adhav mentioned, “What has the PMC carried out for them? What security gear was offered to them?”
Instead, he mentioned, the PMC was attempting to remove their supply of revenue.
Garbage pickers just lately launched a marketing campaign to mobilize help for his or her trigger, and 115 corporators and three million residents have already expressed solidarity with them by way of signature campaigns.
The staff mentioned that as a substitute of giving them long-term contracts, the PMC is extending their outdated contracts for a month or two and on the identical time bidding so as to add personal businesses.
Opposing the transfer, the employees additionally demanded life insurance coverage cowl, security gear and particular allowances for accumulating rubbish in the course of the pandemic.
Sule mentioned the PMC was doing full injustice to the waste pickers and his celebration would struggle for his or her pursuits. “PMC spends Rs 200 crore on garbage transport ignoring the issues of poor rag pickers. This is completely wrong,” she mentioned.
He additionally raised questions on the best way the waste was allegedly handled after assortment. “The waste pickers segregate the waste at the source and deposit it in the collection system of the PMC. However, it has been observed that the segregated waste is re-mixed and dumped at the processing site,” she mentioned.
The chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs the PMC, Ganesh Bidkar mentioned that the company won’t snatch any work from the waste pickers. “I assure the Swachh Sahakari Samiti that the waste pickers will not be allowed to be affected (by this move),” he mentioned.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
