By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
DEHRADUN, 6 Mar: The issue of BJP MLA from Salt (Almora) Mahesh Jeena having a heated argument with Municipal Commissioner Gaurav Kumar, yesterday, has escalated with the “angry” Municipal Corporation employees threatening to go on strike. Today, Municipal Corporation Employees Federation announced it would go on strike. Along with the sanitation workers, Municipal Corporation officers and employees have also gone on strike. Apart from this, the Employees Federation also locked up all the section offices of the Corporation. Not only this, the sanitation workers have also threatened that they will not collect garbage door to door in the entire Municipal Corporation area with immediate effect. The workers of Municipal Corporation Employees Federation are demanding the resignation of the MLA from the Assembly. The Federation has also sought an apology from the MLA for his unruly behaviour with the Municipal Commissioner over alleged cancellation of a tender of someone allegedly close to the MLA.
Mahesh Jeena, who is the brother of the late Surendra Jeena, is an MLA from Salt constituency in Almora district, without any obvious link with Dehradun Nagar Nigam. However, despite this the MLA allegedly misbehaved with Municipal Commissioner Gaurav Kumar over cancellation of a tender related to disposal of garbage dump from the trenching ground of the Nagar Nigam located on Sahastradhara Road. This trenching ground is packed with garbage much beyond its capacity and had to be shut down a long time ago. It is estimated that lakhs of metric tons of garbage are still dumped there. For the disposal of this garbage, the Municipal Corporation had recently issued a tender for work worth about Rs 28 crores. Sources claim that an acquaintance of MLA Mahesh Jeena had also applied for the tender but the Municipal Corporation had allegedly declared his tender ineligible and cancelled it.
Jeena reached the Nagar Nigam office yesterday and allegedly used abusive words against the top Nagar Nigam officers. He had also reportedly sought details regarding the cancellation of the tender. In the heat of the moment, Jeena became angry and allegedly used abusive words against an employee Pawan Thapa. Later, Jeena entered the office of Municipal Commissioner Gaurav Kumar and also had some arguments with him.
State General Secretary of Municipal Corporation Employees Federation Satendra Kumar has claimed that all the employee unions oppose the way the MLA had behaved rudely with the Municipal Commissioner and an employee. He said that until action is not taken against the MLA, all the employees will remain on strike, boycotting work.
