Members of Nagar Nigam Kamgar Union press for their demands in Muzaffarpur on Tuesday. Picture by Prakash Kumar

Muzaffarpur, July 12: The residents got a day’s reprieve from the dry spell as the civic body employees on strike decided to defer the disruption of water supply by a day.

Initially, the employees agitating under the banner of Nagar Nigam Kamgar Union had decided to disrupt water supply from today to exert pressure for fulfilment of their six-point demands, including implementation of Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. But they decided to defer it by a day unanimously at the union’s meeting today. The representatives of Nagar Nigam Jal Karyakarmi Sangh, a wing of the union, also attended the meeting.

The secretary of the union, Rameshwar Rai, said they decided to disrupt water supply to press harder for their six-point charter.

The corporation employees on strike for the past 22 days today damaged the garbage collection van of Nidan, a private agency responsible for the city’s sanitation, and got into an altercation with the agency’s personnel. Arvind Singh, the project manager of Nidan, said the personnel of the agency have expressed helplessness to do their work in a hostile situation.

“The employees on strike misbehaved with the personnel of Nidan. Proper security is necessary for our personnel to collect garbage in the city,” said Singh.

The members of Nagar Nigam Kamgar Union also took out a procession this morning from the corporation office and reached the civic body commissioner’s residence after marching through the main thoroughfares of the city. Later, the employees went to the office of the district magistrate, Santosh Kumar Mall.

A delegation of the JD(U) leaders, led by its district president Rajeshwar Sah, met Mall to submit a memorandum, which asked the DM to persuade the employees to call off their strike or fulfil their demands, as garbage and drain water was overflowing on to the roads and people were forced to stay indoors.

Mall told The Telegraph: “The corporation has gone bankrupt and is unable to pay salaries to its employees. There is complete financial anarchy. Revenue collected by the corporation is allegedly swindled. I have instructed the municipal commissioner to correct the financial anomalies.”

Meanwhile, the corporation employees Sudhir Jha and Umesh Mahto, who went on a fast-unto-death outside the civic body office from July 9 under the banner of Nagar Nigam Jal Karyakarmi Sangh demanding implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, were shifted to Sadar hospital today because of their deteriorating health.