Engineers firm on strike,BMC gets High Court stay

Civic administration on Monday invoked the Maharashtra Essential Services and Maintenance (MESMA) Act of 2011.

With the civic engineers threatening to go on a three-day strike starting Tuesday in protest against the arrest and suspension of their colleagues in connection with the September 27 Dockyard Road building collapse that killed 62 people,the civic administration on Monday invoked the Maharashtra Essential Services and Maintenance (MESMA) Act of 2011 and secured a stay against the strike from the Bombay High Court on Monday.

The engineers,however,said they had not yet received an order from the court and hence would proceed with the strike called by Brihanmumbai Municipal Engineers Union and the Municipal Engineers Association of the BMC.

The strike is uncalled for and will affect administrative work and essential services for 1.25 crore residents of Mumbai. If any civic employee participates in the strike despite the stay,it will be considered as contempt of court, additional municipal commissioner Mohan Adtani said.

Sainath Rajadhyaksha,general secretary of Brihanmumbai Municipal Engineers Union,said,We were not aware of the BMC approaching the court as they did not intimate us. We have called the protests since the corporation has not met our main demand of withdrawing suspension of our colleagues. We have not received the High Courts stay order and so we will not change our plan.

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram