Unpaid for five months, Saswad civic body water worker shuts pumps, posts suicide warning video
A contract worker in the Saswad Municipal Council's water supply department stopped the pumps over unpaid wages and was paid about Rs 77,000 soon after.
An employee of the water supply department of the Saswad Municipal Council, who had not been paid for about five months, switched off the water supply and posted a video on social media warning that he would take his own life. After the video went viral, the town and the taluka were in an uproar. Shortly afterwards, the contractor paid him about Rs 77,000 in wages.
The employee is Prakash Yadav, who works on contract in the department. He is said to have asked the administration about his pay several times, but about five months of salary remained unpaid. Fed up, he went to the room where the electric pumps are kept. There he said, "I have not been paid for five months, so from today I am shutting off the water," and switched off all the pumps.
He also warned: "If anyone tries to harass me, I will hang myself from the roof at this very spot." He made a video during this and put it on social media, where it spread.
As the video circulated, the Saswad municipal administration swung into action. The contractor met the employee at once and spoke to him, then handed him about Rs 77,000, his pay for five months.
After receiving the money, Yadav made a fresh video. In it he said: "The contractor has paid me for five months and I now have no complaint." He also posted this video on social media.
The episode has raised the question of why an employee had to shut off Saswad's water supply for a while and issue a suicide warning to be paid for work he had already done. The administration woke up only after all this had happened. Talk of disorder in the functioning of the council was already around, and now the whole taluka has seen it.
A few days ago, a dead dog in a badly decomposed state was found near a valve on the pipeline that supplies water to Saswad, with thousands of maggots around it. MLA Vijay Shivtare took note of it himself, after which the administration acted and cleaned up the spot. Residents of Saswad are now asking how long this will go on.
