Jaipur: Public health and engineering department (PHED) contractual agencies have deferred their ongoing strike until the first week of Oct after signing a memorandum of understanding with the state govt.Association representatives said govt has agreed to release part of their pending dues by Oct 7 and move proposals for cost escalation in delayed projects. The assurance addresses one of the principal demands of agencies engaged in operations and maintenance of water supply systems.“On Friday, the govt has promised to clear a portion of the overdue by Oct 7. In addition, they upload bills towards the wages of our employees for the operations and maintenance of several water supply projects within the next seven days. We have decided to give time till Oct 7 and are deferring our strike,” stated Om Prakash Bishnoi, the president of Sangharsh Samiti of the association.The association had begun a three-hour token strike from Wednesday to Saturday and had warned of a full-fledged strike from Sunday, after polling for 309 urban local bodies ended.PHED engineers feared disruption to daily water supply because several systems, including Bisalpur supply network, are run through outsourced operations and maintenance staff. In many supply offices, outsourced personnel outnumber govt employees.“We also don’t want to go for strike disrupting the supply and harassing the residents. But under the present situation, we are left with no options rather than to withdraw manpower. Several small contractors had to shut their businesses as all their workers switched jobs after not getting salary for months,” said Hanuman Godara, the vice president of Sangharsh Samiti.
