Irregular salary prompts Sivasagar Municipal Board (SMB) employees to stage strike for fifth time

JOYSAGAR: To demand regular salary and solution to other problems, the Sivasagar Municipal Board (SMB) employees staged strike for the fifth time this year on Wednesday. SMB employees’ union sources said that altogether 270 regular employees had not got their salary for the last 10 months and the SMB authorities had not giving adequate interest in solving their problems. This is for the fifth time that the union has taken such a step for fulfillment of their demands.

Following the sudden strike, the regular cleaning of Sivasagar town, collection of garbage and also water supply was disrupted. Sources said that the State Urban Development Department had released a sum of Rs. 1.12 crore for the SMB recently but the fund had to be spent in various development works and only 30 per cent of the money could be spend in giving monthly salary to the employees.

For the payment of the salary of 270 regular employees and about 100 muster roll workers of the SMB, the authority needs about Rs.45 lakh per month and the SMB earns about Rs. 60-65 lakh every month from different heads against revenue. But due to alleged corruption in the BJP-led SMB, the employees are not getting their monthly salary since 10 months due to which the employees’ union had to resort to strike for the fifth time in this year. The SMB employees’ union also submitted a memorandum to the Sivasagar Deputy Commissioner mentioning their grievances on Wednesday.

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