Patna, May 24: Loss of life hardly matters to Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) authorities. The officers and the grade-four employees of the civic body are in the same boat on this front.

The officers failed to take any initiative to cover a single of the 50-odd uncapped manholes after the death of nine-year-old Roshan Kumar slipping into an uncovered manhole in the Patna City area on Saturday. The mindless agitation of a section of the grade four employees of the civic body today compelled the officers to cancel a meeting on the issue of capping the deadly holes.

Sources in the corporation said a meeting on deadly holes was slated today. But it was cancelled after cleaning cadre employees on strike stormed into the PMC office at Mauryalok Complex and paralysed work.

Mayor Afzal Imam told The Telegraph that he could not go to the office because of the ruckus of the employees on strike.

“We had convened the meeting to discuss the important issue of open manholes, which are taking the shape of death traps and are causing serious accidents. Senior administrative officers were supposed to take part in it. But as the employees on strike paralysed the work completely, we could not hold the meeting,” Imam said.

On the day of the accident, Imam had promised to convene the meeting on Monday. But he spent better part of the day visiting areas with gaping manholes and choked sewer lines, a source said.

Imam’s wish to hold the meeting today took a beating because several senior officers left after the slogan-shouting employees entered the corporation office. The agitating employees shouted slogans against the PMC commissioner and his subordinates. They squatted on a dharna in the office complex and refused to budge till their demands were met with.

About 2,500 employees went on strike on Saturday, demanding assured career promotion benefits, regularisation of daily wagers, increase in dearness allowances, regular salaries, maternity leave for women and clearance of outstanding dues.

Nand Kishore Das, the general secretary of the PMC Fourth Grade Staff Union said they would intensify their agitation if the PMC authorities and the state government did not fulfil their “genuine demands”.

PMC additional commissioner N.C. Jha said the agitating employees would have to realise that some of their demands cannot be fulfilled immediately. “The employees must have patience. Things are under process. It will take some time before assured career promotion benefit scheme is implemented,” he said.

With the cleaning cadre employees on strike, heaps of garbage could be seen on some roadsides. The situation might worsen in days to come.

The mayor, however, said the strike had little effect on the cleaning work. “All major stretches are cleaned by the private company assigned the task of waste collection.”