New Delhi: A municipal worker in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura was sacked Sunday after a viral video showed discarded pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other political figures in his garbage cart.
In the video, the contractual worker is stopped by a local resident wheeling a garbage cart out of which a framed picture of Adityanath could be seen. “Maanya mukh mantri ji ka photo dustbin mein hai. Yeh dekhiye. (The CM’s photo is in a dustbin. Just look at this),” the man is heard saying in the video.
A municipal contractual worker has been terminated by Mathura Municipal corporation for carrying discarded photographs of Adityanath and Narendra Modi in a garbage cart.
The worker says he found the photos in a garbage dump. pic.twitter.com/xEUxCJYwRW— Ravi Nair (@t_d_h_nair) July 17, 2022
He later urged the worker to take the photo out of the cart following which the worker removed the photo which was covered in dirt. An onlooker was seen picking out another photo from the cart, claiming it was of former president Abdul Kalam.
The local residents retrieved another photo which appeared to be that of Modi, after which they forced the worker to reveal his name. In the video, the worker is heard explaining that he collected the photos from a garbage dump.
The incident reportedly took place near Subhash Inter College in Mathura.
Hours later, Satyendra Kumar Tiwari, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Nagar Nigam Mathura-Vrindavan, issued a video statement saying the municipal worker had been fired from the municipal corporation because of ‘laparvai‘ (negligence).
The incident generated mixed reactions with some asserting that the worker was not at fault and urging the municipal corporation to reinstate him.
“Not condoning the idea of photos of those in constitutional posts being dumped like this but what was the mistake of the poor man? He was doing his duty of carrying garbage that people dumped,” said Mansoor Khan, general secretary of Congress in Karnataka.
(Edited by Tony Rai)