The employees of the municipal corporations of Delhi had called for a complete shut down on Wednesday due to non payment of salaries for over three months, bringing services like sanitation, primary health and primary education to a halt.
To grab the Delhi government’s attention, municipal employees have held a protest outside the Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s camp office on Thursday morning. The agitators dumped the garbages outside his office and raised slogans, demanding the release of their salaries.
“It has been two-three months that the workers have not received their salaries. Despite repeated requests, our demands have gone unheard. Hence, we have staged a protest here. We will call off work for an indefinite period if our demands are not met,” Sanjay Gehlot, president of the Mazdoor Vikas Samyukta Morcha, said.
“All the workers will be on strike for the next three days. If the government fails to react, we will begin dumping garbage on city streets,” warned Sanjay Gehlot, the president of Swatantra Majdoor Vikas Sayunkt Morcha.
“You are creating a drama. What happened to the money the corporations get from the parking, advertising, house tax, toll tax, and property conversion? What happened to the money? Why aren’t you paying the poor employees? This is deep-rooted corruption. There is also a conspiracy hatched by the BJP to bring shame to the city and force Delhiites to live in filth,” Delhi tourism minister Kapil Mishra said.
“Entire amount of Rs 892.92 crore i.e. 100% of the revised estimates of the year 2015-16 for North Delhi Municipal Corporation under non plan has been released by the Delhi government. Similarly, in the case of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, entire amount of Rs 465.53 crore i.e. also 100% of the revised estimates of the year 2015-16 has been released by the Delhi government,” the government said in a statement.
“He should go to a mental hospital instead of naturopathy,” north Delhi mayor Ravinder Gupta said, taking a dig at the chief minister’s medical trip to Bengaluru.
“It’s astonishing to see that the governments are busy blaming each other for our unpaid salaries, rather than actually helping us. The situation has reached a point where we must go on strike if we want to get paid our dues,” said a doctor at a civic hospital.
“We do not want to be involved with who owes how much to the other. We want to highlight the difficulties of our day-to-day lives. Our complaint is against the Centre, state and MCDs,” said Rajendra Mewati, general secretary of the United Front of MCD Employees.
"Despite a court order on it earlier, Delhi government has not released the funds under the 3rd DFC or implemented the recommendations of the 4th DFC or constituted the 5th DFC. All the three municipal corporations, we will go to the court filing a contempt petition," South Delhi Mayor Subhash Arya said in a joint press conference.
"The commissioners of all three municipal corporations -- SDMC, EDMC and NDMC -- have written letters to the government about the dues. How can they (government) claim to have paid it already," he said.
"Delhi government is claiming to have paid the funds under the plan head, but the corporations are demanding Rs 2,971 crore owed to them by the government. If the funds as per recommendations of the yet-to-be-implemented 4th DFC is added to it, the amount will double," Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay claimed.
Upadhyay also lashed out at Kejriwal for terming the mayors as "political animal". "If mayors are political animal, then he (Kejriwal) is one who does politics over dead people," he alleged.
By Premji
