Cleaners go on Strike: Garbage collection in Barisal stopped

Many areas of Barisal city have the horrible stench of rotting garbage as the waste has not been collected in three days.

At least 1,600 temporary workers, who are supposed to collect the city's garbage, and 541 class-II and class-III staff of the Barisal City Corporation went on strike on March 27 demanding arrears.

They have five months' salaries due, said Dipok Lal Mridha, conservancy officer of the BCC.

The BCC had promised to pay them two months' arrears by March 20, following the workers' strike in February, but did not live up to it.

Dipok said garbage collectors had to suffer due to this as even a day without pay puts them in trouble.

The agitated staff closed the BCC main gate and disconnected electricity supply to the BCC building.

The BCC authorities have virtually failed to take any effective steps to solve the problem.

BCC Mayor Ahswan Habib Kamal said they provide staff salaries from revenue income but it has become difficult for them to pay salaries regularly due to poor earnings.

BCC Chief Executive Officer Wahiduzzaman said the corporation needs Tk 3 crore to pay the salaries every month but it only earns Tk 2 crore in an average month.

He said after the implementation of the new pay scale around six months ago, staff salaries have become almost double which was one of the main reasons for the deficit.

Wahiduzzaman claimed that the problem could have been solved through discussions with the workers but the workers went on strike without giving any scope for that.

Skips and bins on the city streets are overflowing.

Overflowing garbage skips were seen mainly in Sadar Road, Police Line, Amanatganj, Kawnia, College Avenue, and Bhatikhana areas.

Pedestrians, children going to school and office-goers had to tread carefully in certain places. The stench was overwhelming.

Rebeka Sultana, a homemaker, said she suffers during her trips to school to drop off and bring back her son. There were piles of uncollected garbage on the streets, she said. 

Badol Shil, a staff of the BCC, said he has been suffering from a liver disease for the last six months but his treatment had been seriously hampered because he was not paid his arrear salaries.

“Our family is under tremendous financial constraints due to the non-payment of the salaries,” said Badol, adding that he had taken a lot of money from relatives as loans.