Door-to-door collection of waste from hotels, besides residential houses came to an abrupt halt in the Commercial Capital in the last two days for want of labourers. With the incumbent Chief Officer, N D Agrawal shunted out of office and the Employees Union threatening to strike work if daily wage-workers are employed by the Civic body, the MMC Sanitary section fell short of labourers on Tuesday and Wednesday. The situation did not improve on Wednesday as the new Chief Officer, Y B Tawde did not assume charge of office today, forcing Sanitary Inspector Viraj Arabekar to stop garbage collection from the hotels and residential complexes. If Arabekar is to be believed, he has asked 43 daily wage-workers, including three truck drivers, not to report for work as there was no Chief Officer to certify that they have worked in the Civic body. He pointed out that around 10 workers were being engaged in door-to-door waste collection from the hotels since the last one month, but the drive has been suspended from Tuesday. The MMC has around 39 full-time Municipal workers engaged in garbage collection, but normally not all workers report for duty on a daily basis given the rigours of work. On one hand, the Municipal employees owing allegiance to the Goa Municipal Employees Association have threatened to strike work if the Civic body engages daily wage workers without the nod from the Employment Exchange, while the Civic body is in dire need of workers to clear the hotels and empty the waste bins installed inside the residential complexes.