The Mayors of the three BJP-ruled Municipal Corporations of Delhi on Saturday ended their 13-day sit-in protest outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence here.
They had been on a hunger strike for the past three days. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta met the Mayors and offered them juice to end the hunger strike after which they declared that though they were ending the strike for the time being the movement to demand financial dues amounting to ₹13,000 crore would continue.
“Today [Saturday], even on the 13th day, the corporation leaders are sitting outside the CM’s residence on hunger strike in this severe cold not for their convenience or benefit but for the salary of sanitation workers, doctors, nurses, health workers, teachers and other corporations employees who worked to keep Delhi safe, clean and healthy amid the pandemic,” Mr. Puri said.
“It is utterly unfair that the Delhi government is not providing constitutionally allocated funds to pay the corporation employees. It is the moral responsibility of the Delhi government to provide financial strength to the civic bodies under them but even in such a critical situation, Mr. Kejriwal did not come for five minutes to meet the corporation leaders,” he added.
Mr. Gupta said the corporation leaders were fighting for the people of Delhi, for the rights of corporation workers, and for better civic amenities. He alleged that the CM was “wasting crores of public tax money for shining his photo” on hoardings but not releasing the funds for the corporations.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday said that a school teacher of a BJP-ruled civic body had written to the President that he should either tell the corporation to release their salaries or he should give him permission to die by suicide.
A complete lie: AAP
AAP civic bodies’ in-charge Durgesh Pathak said that when the party asks the BJP to pay salaries of municipal employees, they say that ₹13,000 crore is pending from the Delhi government to the corporations.
“It is a complete lie. A recent court order regarding clearance of pending salary of municipal employees has no mention of this imaginary ₹13,000 crore. During the court hearing, BJP’s standing counsel never mentioned ₹13,000 crore,” he said.
