With the Delhi municipal elections coming up in April, the issue of regularisation of contractual workers hired by the three civic bodies is heating up. With the two major parties - AAP and BJP - engaged in a public tussle over the issue, the affected workers are left with no other option other than to take to the streets.
The indefinite strike, paired with a hunger strike, by domestic breeding checkers (DBC), who were employed in 1996 on contract following the dengue outbreak, has entered its second week. There are 3,500 DBCs currently employed across the three corporations of North, South and East.
According to a senior official of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, the DBCs were hired on the recommendation of the then Delhi government. While the power to create a permanent post for DBCs lay with the corporations, the budgetary allocation for their wages came from the government. The 3,500 DBCs currently employed across the three Corporations of North, South and East earn slightly over ₹15,000 a month from funds released by the government.
Prior to the 2017 civic body polls, the workers had been assured of regularisation of their services. Devanand Sharma, president, anti-malaria ekta karamchari union (AMEKU), told The Hindu, that no progress had been made over their demands so far. The elected wing of the BJP-led civic bodies has blamed the Delhi government for failing to sanction the required budget for the regularisation of the workers.
The trouble started earlier this month when AAP leaders accused the BJP-led civic bodies of giving the DBCs “false hopes” of regularisation. This came days after the Delhi government regularised services of 700 contractual Delhi Jal Board employees.
Not just DBCs
Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri (BJP), said, 10,000 contractual workers hired till 2009, were to be regularised by the first week of March as per the decision of the municipality. “But the Delhi government has neither provided the pending funds to the civic bodies nor has it given the approval for regularising a section of the workers on contract,” he pointed out. .
The war of words between the BJP and AAP refuses to end with the issue of regularisation also extending to the safai karamcharis. The BJP’s Delhi unit President, Adesh Gupta, said last week that over 16,000 contractual workers, under the three civic bodies, be regularised by the civic bodies and, on Friday, the North civic body passed a resolution to regularise 6,646 sanitation workers (safai karamcharis).
However, Leader of Opposition at the North MCD, Vikas Goel (AAP), immediately questioned the decision saying that only “1,725” posts of safai karamcharis were vacant, and further dismissed the announcement as a “pre-poll gimmick”.
An official at the North civic body, said there was no uniform process followed in regularising daily wage workers across the three civic bodies. “The sanitation workers are regularised batch-wise because only those many posts are sanctioned. And in case of DBCs, not a single post is sanctioned and, therefore, they cannot be regularised unless the posts are created. Similarly, there are various other sections of contractual workers, on the corporations’ payroll, who cannot be regularised – including contractual teachers,” he explained.
‘Pre-poll gimmicks’
Leader of Opposition at East Delhi Municipal Corporation, Manoj Tyagi (AAP), said that the decision to regularise sanitation workers is an “eye-wash” and any assurance of regularsing DBCs by the BJP-led civic bodies “is a pre-poll gimmick”.
In the run up to the 2017 civic body elections, both BJP and AAP had promised regularisation of contractual workers, in their electoral manifesto.
Mr. Tyagi emphasised that the BJP went back on its promise and even removed the assurance from the party’s 2017 manifesto, while the AAP continues to talk about regularising contractual workers as its key priority.
He claimed the salaries of DBCs are provided by the government to the civic bodies, but it is misused and not paid on time. “In 2018-2019, the civic body moved a proposal to regularise DBCs, but could not clarify what the sanctioned post would be and how they would execute the process. Proposals regarding regularisation of contract workers have not been moved forward, yet only the Delhi government is blamed for failure,” he said.
Mr. Sharma said assurances of regularisation come “only when the polls are round the corner”.
“The civic body leaders (BJP) tell us that we will be regularised but the Delhi government is blocking the process by not providing funds. But what is stopping them from creating a permanent post? It is the civic body’s responsibility to create a permanent post for us, but they do not want to. This has been the case over the last 15 years of BJP in power,” he rued.
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