Not paid in 4 months, claim contract staff; initiate strike

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Around 400 staffers in the state, who were hired on a contractual basis for executing the Swachh Bharat Mission and Jal Jeevan Mission, have claimed of not getting their monthly honorarium in the last four months.The workers started a strike on Wednesday and warned of larger protests after Feb 9 if govt fails to take action. Ramakant Gaikwad, one of the state-level leaders of agitating staffers, said the water supply department has not released its monthly dues to staffers citing low funds."We have made many representations before different authorities and also met different ministers. The govt authorities only assure that the payments will be made once funds are available," he said. The agitating staffers are shouldered with the responsibilities such as spreading awareness about the central schemes, executing training programs, capacity building among different stakeholders, among other works."State govt claims they have no funds to pay honorariums of contractual workforce,, but released Rs69 crore towards the training programmes involving central schemes related to contractual workers. This is beyond our comprehension," Gaikwad said. Maharashtra water supply minister Gulabrao Patil could not be reached for his comments.