Following the intervention of Delhi High Court, sanitation workers of the three Municipal Corporations on Monday agreed to call off their strike and resume work by the evening. The civic bodies told the court that they had released workers’ salaries till January, which they would receive within two days.
A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice G. Rohini, hearing a public interest litigation on the issue of strike, took on record the assurance of sanitation workers and said it would hear arguments on payment of arrears and unification of corporations, raised by the joint front of safai karamcharis, on Wednesday.
The workers agreed to end their strike after the counsel representing the MCDs said if any salaries were pending, they would be released by the evening, as sufficient funds were available. The Bench, which had earlier remarked that the sanitation workers could not hold the city to ransom, observed in its order: “All the safai karamcharis are now calling off the strike and resuming the work immediately.”
The counsel said though the funds had been released on February 5, the salaries might not have reached all zonal offices as some of them were closed. There would be no impediment in the release of wages for the month of January, he said.
The PIL, moved by Birender Sangwan, had sought directions for lifting of garbage from roads and streets and calling off of the strike, as it was causing hardship to the public at large.
