Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Vinai Kumar Saxena has directed the Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to look into alleged non-payment of bills to the tune of Rs 16 crore by Delhi Government to over 1000 Dalit workers engaged in cleaning of sewer lines in the national Capital through Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The L-G has expressed displeasure over "inordinate delay" in the payments and directed the Chief Secretary to take immediate steps to clear all “genuine claims” of the Dalit sanitation workers before Diwali.
The L-G’s directions come in wake of a representation made by Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI), led by its chairman Dr Milind Kamble who met Saxena on September 30, complaining about the apathy of the Delhi Government towards these Dalit workers who are the first generation entrepreneurs.
According to the complaint by the DICCI, the contract between DJB and DICCI, stipulates the release of payment to the contractors every month but in the last four years, timely payment to these Dalit entrepreneurs have not been made.
“These contractors faced the worst crisis during the Covid-19 lockdown when the Delhi Government did not release their payments for several months even as their entire fleet of the sewer cleaning machines was engaged by the Government for special sanitation drive across the city, causing hardships to these Dalit frontline workers,” the complaint read.
As per the sources at the L-G office, Kamble, a Padma Awardee and also the Director of Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), Jammu, alleged that these Dalit contractors and workers are in the 4th year of their service with the DJB, but ever since they have been facing acute crisis, they said. “Kamble also claimed that a lobby active in the DJB was constantly trying to fail these poor Dalit sanitation workers so that the sewer cleaning work again goes back to the old contractors,” they informed. “On February 28, 2019, the DJB had signed an agreement with DICCI for implementing a technology-based solution for sewer cleaning to eliminate manual scavenging in Delhi, under which 189 contractors from the marginalized communities were engaged by DJB for cleaning of the sewer lines,” they said.
These contractors have engaged over 1000 sanitation workers who are responsible for cleaning of sewers in the DJB areas, they stated.
“Also, to implement the project, these contractors purchased sewer cleaning machines with loan assistance under the “Stand up India” Scheme, a flagship scheme of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi which aims at supporting poor and marginalized to become self-reliant,” they said.
“The State Bank of India (SBI) has extended the term loan up to 90 per cent of the project cost, that is Rs 40 lakh for each machine and the remaining 10 per cent of the margin money was brought in by the Dalit entrepreneurs.
Thus, the Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) payment to the bank forms the major expenditure every month apart from the recurring operation and maintenance expenses of these machines,” they claimed.
“However, due to non-payment of bills by Delhi Government, these dalit workers have been forced to go without salary for several months and the contractors are unable to meet the critical recurring expenses like the fuel, operation and maintenance and repayment of bank EMIs,” sources added.