Vadodara, 14 February 2012

Over 1,000 employees of Vadodara Municipal Corporation today called off their strike and joined their work back after city Mayor’s intervention.

Mayor Dr. Jyotiben held a meeting with VMC employees today morning and requested them to end their strike for convenience of the general public.

The employees agreed to end their strike provided that they would get proper security on duty.

The employees had started their indefinite strike from yesterday demanding written apology from Congress party President for attack on two officials of VMC. Essential services and class-one officers were not part of the strike.

Last week, a group of of Congress workers led by city Congress President Narendra Ravat and leader of opposition Chinnam Gandhi, entered into the office of NURM project Executive Engineer Shri PM Patel at 3.30 pm to give a memorandum on faulty design of new Sayajirav flyover(also known as a Lalbaug flyover). When Shri PM Patel was receiving the memorandum, Narendra Jaiswal, city General Secretary of Congress party threw black ink over Shri PM Patel’s face and attempted to make his entire face black. Some ink also spilled over Deputy Engineer Shri Jignesh Shah. Both Patel and Shah were taken to Sayaji hospital, as they complained pain in eyes. A police complaint was filed by Shri PM Patel against Narendra Jayswal in Ravpura police station.

Protesting this uncivilized act, more than 1,000 staff members of VMC walked-out from their offices and gathered in the compound boycotting their work. They also declared indefinite strike from Monday, demanding apology from city Congress President in writing.

VMC naukar mandal, SC/ST employees union, Technical association, Employees union, All India Valmiki employees union and other major organizations were supporting the strike.

City Congress General Secretary Jayswal who had thrown black ink on the faces of two VMC officers has been arrested on Sunday. Police has also arrested as many as 11 Congress workers including city Congress President who were part of the group that came to Engineer PM Patel’s office during ink throwing row.

In an ongoing battle, between VMC and Congress party, a team of VMC officials reached city Congress President Chinnam Gandhi’s party plots in Manjalpur area on Sunday and served notice against improper use.