The strike by safai karamcharis entered 23rd day on Thursday, with workers staging a demonstration in front of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence.
The sanitation workers have been demanding regularisation of employees, payment of arrears and other benefits since they went on strike on September 12. As a consequence, garbage has been piling up on the streets of east Delhi.
Sanjay Gehlot of the MCD Safai Karamcharis Union said that the workers were willing to withdraw the strike if all employees hired up till 2017 were regularised.
While the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) passed a resolution to this effect in a House meeting on September 26, Corporation Commissioner Ranbir Singh had told The Hindu that doing so will add ₹250 crore to the annual wage bill and it will be imprudent to do so given the financial ramifications.
Assurance sought
“They should at least start the process or give us assurance. But we have been told that no action will be taken until the Corporation receives the money,” Mr. Gehlot said.
The Delhi government had on Wednesday assured the Supreme Court, where the matter of funding to be given to corporations is being heard, that it will release ₹500 crore to the Corporation in order to meet its immediate requirement.
Meanwhile, the EDMC commissioner has been placed on leave following a call by the political leadership of the Corporation to remove him for not complying with its demand.
B.S. Vohra of the East Delhi Residents’ Welfare Association Joint Front expressed concern over increasingly unhygienic conditions and possibility of increase in diseases.
“We have been taking our issue to everyone to get a solution to our problems but nothing is being done” he said.
