Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday the salaries of Municipal Corporation of Delhi workers, who are on an indefinite strike demanding payment of their dues, should be released immediately.
‘The salaries of municipal corporation employees should be given immediately. They have worked and are demanding their right...they are not begging,’ Kejriwal said in a series of tweets.
‘There is a hearing (in this regard) in court on Tuesday and a decision will be taken there. It’s a matter of two days only. There should no problem to the people of Delhi,’ he said.
Delhi government on Saturday deployed hundreds of Public Works Department workers to lift garbage from across the city as nearly 60,000 sanitation workers of municipal corporations continued their strike.
Kejriwal, who is in Bengaluru for naturopathy treatment for 10 days, said he has issued directions to deploy as many trucks as needed to clear the city of garbage and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of playing politics on the issue.
‘I have directed government to deploy as many trucks as are needed to lift garbage. Public should not be inconvenienced (sic),’ he tweeted.
‘The BJP is spreading garbage across the city. The Aam Aadmi Party government is clearing them. Own politics. I appeal to people to help us clear the garbage (sic),’ he further said.
He also made an appeal to the BJP and the Congress supporters of to help the government remove garbage.
Delhi government has been maintaining that it has provided adequate funds of over Rs 2,187 crore under non-planned head to the three municipal corporations in the current fiscal, alleging that a ‘salary scam’ has led to the crisis.
Earlier in the day, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia wondered why the MCDs were not seeking Rs 1,600 crore owed to them by Delhi Development Authority.
“I want to challenge the MCD to make their all expenditures public so that people will get to know what they have done with funds collected from different sources,” he said while addressing a press conference
A blame game over the issue between the AAP and the BJP, which rules the three civic bodies continued.
In more bad news, over 7,000 doctors and 10,000 nurses of hospitals run by the municipal corporations also went on indefinite strike demanding salary and arrears.
Around 12,000 engineering staff of the civic bodies also joined the stir.
On the fourth day of the strike by the sanitation workers, hundreds of the BJP workers joined the agitators extending the party’s solidarity with them.
“Delhi government is responsible for the crisis. It has not allocated adequate funds to the three municipal corporations. They are not bothered about the problem being faced by the people,” Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said.
Slamming the municipal corporations, Sisodia asked where the money released by the Delhi government has gone and alleged a ‘salary scam’ in the BJP-ruled civic bodies.
“There is a salary scam and that is why they are not being able to pay the dues,” he said.
He said people are suffering due to the strike by sanitation workers and alleged that the BJP was doing politics over the issue.
