Delhi govt. regularises 700 DJB contractual employees

Kejriwal calls it a first-of-its-kind step in the country

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday administered the regularisation of 700 contractual Delhi Jal Board (DJB) employees. He termed it a landmark step which went against nationwide trends of privatisation and decreasing permanent employees.

Calling the mass regularisation a first-of-its-kind step in the country, Mr. Kejriwal hoped those in other departments would follow suit.

“Our nation is headed in the opposite direction where the number of regular employees is decreasing and the number of non-regular employees is increasing,” the Chief Minister said.

Mr. Kejriwal said the step was against public opinion that once employees are regularised they do not work hard and become complacent and lazy.

“The progress that has taken place in the education sector was not done by us but by the excellent government schoolteachers and headmasters. They are all government employees who have worked wonders in order to reform our government schools,” he said.

“Government hospitals too were remodelled and equipped with the latest facilities, all thanks to the hard work done by government doctors and nurses. So to say that ‘government employees do not work’ is a baseless hoax,” he added.

Mr. Kejriwal said the employees were successfully regularised since the DJB was an autonomous body with no “interference from the Centre”.

“We will make consistent efforts and negotiate with the Central government to ensure more employees in other Delhi government departments are regularised,” he said.

The regularised employees will now be able to avail themselves of the benefits, including medical facilities, government accommodation, leave benefits and terminal dues like gratuity, NPS, LTC among others.

They will also receive arrears from 2019 in addition to double salary and perks such as DA, annual increments, children education allowance, paternity and maternity leaves.

It is fraud: BJP

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri termed the announcement a “fraud”.

“All these employees were appointed in the DJB on compassionate grounds after the death of a relative. Their appointment should have been permanent, but the Jal Board deliberately kept them temporary,” he said.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor asked why not even a single contractual employee was regularised in the last seven years.