Employees of the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board (KUWSDB) working on contract basis, who are facing the threat of discontinuation of services, will march to the residence of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in Hubballi on Sunday seeking relief.
The contract employees are on strike from the last five days demanding the continuation of their services as water supply service handled earlier by the KUWSDB has now been handed over to Larsen and Toubro (L&T) for operation.
Coordinator of the agitation committee V.N. Halakatti told presspersons in Dharwad on Saturday that talks with municipal commissioner B. Gopalkrishna had failed as the latter insisted that the contract workers should join L&T as contract workers only.
He said their demand was that they should be treated as temporary employees and their services be handed over from the KUWSDB to Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation. “The HDMC should depute us to L&T and we are ready. But the workers are not ready to join L&T as contract workers,” he said.
Already, the strike has affected drinking water supply in several wards of the twin cities, leading to agitations by residents. On Friday, the former MLA N.H. Konaraddi led a group of people to block the Dharwad–Goa road for a few hours to register the citizen’s protest. On Friday, State president of Youth Congress Mohammed Haris Nalapad and other Congress leaders had taken part in the agitation expressing solidarity with them.
