Overview
- Sanitation unions suspended a two-week strike on Thursday after a five-member delegation from a 35-member workers’ committee held detailed talks with Cabinet minister Harjot Singh Bains, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema and senior officials.
- The state and union leaders set up a joint committee to review all pending demands and gave the government one month to act on the issues.
- Officials said several demands were resolved during the discussions and the government promised to prioritise recruitment, salary and service-benefit issues while some items will require legal or election-code clearance.
- The strike had left garbage piled in towns and cities across Punjab and officials expect sanitation services to normalise within a couple of days as workers return to duty.
- The dispute took on a political edge after Cheema publicly condemned Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu’s alleged remark about Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, and unions said they will watch the one-month timetable before deciding on further action.