GREATER NOIDA: Residents in several sectors picked up their brooms on Monday to clean their surroundings in the wake of a strike by sanitation workers that entered its 15th day. More than 50 contract workers have been on strike since November 5 demanding increased salaries and bonuses on par with the GNIDA staff. After negotiations with the contract staff on November 11 proved futile, the Authority hired private workers to pick up garbage, however, the services have been largely sporadic. Greater Noida generates 300 tonnes of waste daily.The sanitation workers strike has been dragging on for nearly two weeks and garbage hasnt been picked up from sector Beta 1 for as many days. Filth has accumulated in many pockets, raising a stink now, a local resident Harinder Bhati said. On Monday, Bhati was among a motley group that swept some stretches in the sector where dry leaves and dust had accumulated. We had also hired a cart to collect the garbage and disposed it of at the collection centre, said Bhati.Residents of Omicron 1A, too, swept the roads to clear dry leaves and dust that had accumulated over two weeks. People are troubled. Residents swept the streets and cleared the garbage dumped near the twogates of the sector, said Siddharth Agarwal, a resident. Residents claimed that mini dumpsites had cropped up in the sector and no Greater Noida staff had come to pick them up. A former RWA general secretary of the sector, Yogendra Mavi said, Garbage from several nearby sectors is being dumped here. A few days ago, the Authoritys workers set fire to the waste piles. The smoke and stink engulfing the entire sector pose a health hazard for residents, who are already suffering due to the pollution. At Delta 1, residents claimed neither waste was picked up by trucks nor the streets had been cleaned.Fed up with the mess all around, a group of residents from Beta 1 met GNIDA CEO Ravi Kumar NG on Monday. They were told that some labourers were being hired as an ad hoc arrangement from Labour Chowk to sweep the sector roads till additional workers could be deployed by the Authority. The GNIDA CEO has also directed officials from the public health, sewer, and horticulture departments to resolve the civic issues. According to OSD (public health) Rajnikant Pandey, the contract sanitation staff were paid their salary — Rs 12,000 per month — along with a Diwali bonus before the festival but more than 50 workers continued to remain on strike demanding a Rs 2,000 pay hike.

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