Scavengers strike work in Ardh Kumbh Mela

Allahabad, Jan 12 (UNI) About 6,000 scavengers on duty in Ardh Kumbh Mela area here today went on an indefinite strike, badly affecting sanitation and cleaning work.

They are demanding increase in their wages, alleging the mela administration was giving them Rs 57 per day, while the rate was Rs 110 per day.

The scavengers claimed the Kumbh mela administration at Nasik and Ujjain had also provided the scavengers with Rs 110 per day.

This morning, the scavengers carrying brooms, spades and baskets reached the health officer's camp office and shouted anti-mela administration slogans.

Later, they returned to their respective camps in the mela area at 1200 hrs and decided to return at the camp office at 1500 hrs.

A large number of scavengers from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have been engaged for sanitation work in the Ardh Kumbh on daily wages basis.

UNI