SMC pickup drivers go on strike to press for pending salaries

Srinagar, Oct 14: Over 150 drivers who are responsible for collecting waste from residential homes and hotels in Srinagar didn't show up for work on Monday as they go for a strike over pending salaries.

These drivers had been demanding their salaries from past months, but their patience today hit a threshold after authorities failed to deliver on their promises, said a senior SMC official requesting anonymity.

"We have detailed our concerns with the chairman many times, now, only protest will help," said Malik, a driver who only wanted to be identified with his last name.

Bashir Ahmad, a sweeper at the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) who pulls a hand cart to clean drainages and roads, saw himself going to an extra mile today, as his inspector ordered him to collect the household waste in addition to his own duties.

Ahmad along with his five more colleagues deployed in the diameter of around 3 kilometres from Habba Kadal to Nai Sarak to Barbar Shah to Ganpatyar said, they collected domestic waste from over 600 households in their area as pickup truck drivers go on a work stoppage.

"Over 150 men who drive pickup trucks to collect waste from residential homes and hotels are on strike over unpaid salaries that are due for three months," said SMC's area in-charge Abdul Rashid as he monitored sweepers and cart pullers today morning.

Rashid said he had instructed his men to collect waste from residential homes and bring it to the open waste dumping sites, from where the big garbage trucks would remove it. The truck drivers are working, only the pickup truck or Chota Haathi drivers are on strike, he informed.

While the hand-cart pullers have substituted pickup trucks' works, they haven't been able to collect wastage from hotels in Srinagar given the amount and type of waste that comes out from them.

"Household waste contains a dustbin full of some food leftovers or its likes, while as wastage from hotels contain liquor bottles, chicken, meat, and other huge items which can't be collected in hand cart neither can they be accommodated at open dumping sites," said Rashid and his two sweepers.

If dumped openly, the hotel wastage can fill air with unwanted scent while bottles and other hard material can hurt or cause damage to truck wheels, they said.

Although SMC had vowed to shun the practices of open waste dumping, these sites still remain active across the city, with waste being accommodated at these sites then later being removed by big SMC garbage trucks.

"I am receiving phone calls from major hotels in Srinagar. They desperately want their waste to be collected," Rashid said. Many of these hotels are in the tourist hubs including Khanyar, and Munwarabad, he said.

The pickup drivers are inducted and facilitated by private agencies and not directly by the SMC.

SMC commissioner Dr Owais Ahmad told GK that although he knew these drivers had some issue, he wasn't aware of the strike.

"I will check and resolve," said the commissioner.

He said, they might have issues with their agencies, however, there are no dearth of funds for the SMC.