Khwairamband Keithel reduced to dumping site
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 15 2013: With employees of Imphal Municipal Council launching a cease work strike every now and then, every corner and street of Khwairamband Keithel has become the dumping site for garbage and waste material.

On account of not disposing garbage and waste material since the last few days, the market is now literally filled with mounds of filthy and stinking garbage everywhere.

Shopkeepers/vendors, customers and everyone alike are being forced to cover their mouth and nose while they do business or simply pass through the market.

IMC employees launched a cease work strike since January 7 demanding payment of their pending salaries for 22 months.

Since then, mounds of garbage and waste material have been piling up at these places.

Since the cease work strike was launched, all kinds of cleansing and sweeping have been suspended.

IMC Employees' Union general secretary Th Sobita said that they were compelled to launch the cease work strike as they are facing enormous financial difficulties due to non-payment of salaries for the last 19 months and another three months backlog of 2006 .

Rotting garbage piled up along BT Road tells the story

The union has been asking the concerned to pay the pending the salaries since November 12, 2012.However, no response was forthcoming.

Subsequently, the indefinite cease work strike was launched out of compulsion.

On account of the employees' strike, all kinds of sanitary activities have been suspended.

Apart from not entering their own office, the employees have locked office rooms of even officers, Sobita said.

On the other hand, mounds of wastes and effluents which are churned out every day have started decomposing and are now repellingly stinky.

With half of the road passing near Nupi Keithel II and temporary market occupied by piles of garbage at two points, people are facing lot of inconveniences while going along the road.

Likewise, people cannot pass through the road in between Nupi Keithel-I and Nupi Keithel II without covering their mouths as the mounds of garbage piled emanates a foul stench.

A road-side vendor said that no garbage was taken out from Khwairamband market in the last 9/10 days.

"Helpless as we are, we are selling goods amidst all the filth, garbage and the nauseating smell", she said.

"Under such unhealthy conditions, any disease can infect us any time", she added.

Th Sobita decried that the concerned authority has been little heed to the long standing demands of the IMC employees' union which included implementation of ACP scheme for IMC employees, regular payment of salaries, clearance of backlog salaries, enforcement of 6th Pay Commission recommendations with regard to IMC employees etc.

Pointing out that there is no room for promotion for IMC employees, She insisted the ACP scheme should be implemented for them.

Under the scheme, employees should get salaries based on the number of years of their service periods.

Citing the upcoming Republic Day, MAHUD Commissioner appealed to call off the cease work strike during a meeting with representatives of the Union this morning.

The union would convene a meeting and decide whether the strike should continue or not, Sobita added.