The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Commissioner of Police to ensure that the removal of garbage from roads by the agencies employed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) is not obstructed by the striking sanitation workers.
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath, passed the interim order on an application moved by the EDMC seeking directions to safai karamcharis to comply with the court’s earlier orders to perform their duty. The application, filed as part of a writ petition disposed of on July 16 this year, said the protesters were preventing trucks and loaders from leaving the depot to collect garbage for its clearance.
The strike by the sanitation workers entered its sixth day on Wednesday.
While restraining the associations of safai karamchari unions from obstructing the removal of garbage, since outsourced to private agencies, the court asked the Commissioner of Police to file his compliance report by January 8, 2016, when the case will come up for further hearing. Notices were also issued to the bodies representing sanitation workers as well as the Delhi government. In its earlier orders passed on three different occasions, the court had directed safai karamcharis, who had gone on strike over non-payment of their salaries, not to obstruct removal of garbage.
The EDMC’s application said the municipal body was facing ‘obstruction and hindrance’ in lifting garbage from the areas within its jurisdiction due to the strike and agitation by safai karamcharis, including the joint forum of unions. This had resulted in accumulation of garbage in East Delhi all over again, it said.
