Ghaziabad, Jul 1 (IANS): In a sudden move, the sanitation staff of the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation went on strike on Monday and declared that they will continue to stay away from work till their demands are met.

Sanitation staff union leader Subhash Chandra said that they were seeking their salary be improved and it be may be paid on time, but due to the corporation and the district administration "ignoring" them, their condition had reached "a very miserable condition".

"Our staffers are given Rs 7,000 to Rs 7,500 per month and that too, on different dates from the month's 7th to 10th or 11th and so on.

"We met Municipal Commissioner Dinesh Chandra Singh and District Magistrate Ritu Maheswari on several occasions. Our union submitted a memorandum to the District Magistrate last month in which we demanded our salary be increased but both the authorities ignored our demands and forced us to go on this drastic step of halting work," he added.

The Municipal Commissioner, meanwhile, said that the civic body had already accepted the demands, which it could at its level and the others had been referred to Lucknow, for the state government.

"As those demands are accepted, we will implement them instantly. So declaring a strike is wrong.

"We appeal to them to withdraw the call and join work with immediate effect," he added.