Sanitation workers continued their agitation against delayed salary payments on Saturday, though municipal authorities claimed that safai karamcharis had been paid.
Municipal sanitation staff in many parts of the city refused to lift garbage and even dumped trash at various locations as a sign of protest. Among the areas affected were Laxmi Nagar, Dilshad Colony, Dilshad Garden in East Delhi and parts of the Narela, Rohini and Civil Lines Zones in North Delhi.
Traffic was affected in parts of East Delhi as the workers blocked roads with garbage. Rajendra Mewati, the president of the Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor Congress, said the workers even dumped trash outside Laxmi Nagar MLA Nitin Tyagi’s residence.
“We will keep protesting till all sanitation workers are paid. The corporations’ claim that they have released salaries is a complete lie,” said Mr. Mewati.
However, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation said in a statement on Saturday that it had “released 100 per cent of salaries for the month of February”. However, workers’ unions maintained that they had not been paid nor informed of the same. Sanjay Sitara, president of the Delhi Nagar Nigam Safai Mazdoor Sangh, said corporation officials had admitted to them that they would be paid when funds were released by the Delhi Government.
Meanwhile, Class IV employees in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Bara Hindu Rao Hospital struck work from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. North Corporation Director of Hospital Administration Dr. D.K. Seth that the agitating employees had agreed to work in the emergency ward.
The Class IV staff, which includes ward boys, sweepers and nursing orderlies, have not been paid their salaries for the month of February.
“We have partly released their salaries, but by Monday we should release all Class IV employees’ wages,” said Dr. Seth.
