Sanitation workers on Wednesday staged a demonstration outside the headquarters of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) here demanding regularisation and payment of pending arrears. Nearly 500 sanitation worker gathered at the gate of the civic centre to register their protest under the banner of the MCD All Unions Core Committee.
Some sanitation workers also removed their shirts amid the biting cold to register their protest against the administration. Amid police barricading, the sanitation workers also tried to halt traffic on the road.
The protestors, including many persons with disabilities and elderly persons, sat on the road causing traffic jam near the MCD headquarters on Minto Road.
Delhi Congress and their leaders supported the protests and participated in their agitation. Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely held the Delhi government and Centre responsible for non payment of pending arrears and demanded regularisation of sanitation workers. Lovely, addressing the demonstrators, said that when Congress was in power, it ensured that the demands of the MCD workers were met without any protest or financial crunch, as both the MCD and the Delhi Government worked in close co-ordiantion with each other so that the works of the MCD were not adversely affected. He demanded the regularization of services of all contract workers engaged from March 1, 1996 to 998 and from March 1, 1998 to 2000. He said that according to the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission, the arrears of MAPC, DA and Bonus should be paid to the MCD workers forthwith, and the pension amount also hiked without any further delay.
Terming the AAP government as anti dalit, senior Congress leader Jai Kishan said sanitation workers have not got anything during the AAP regime in the last eight years. Why does the AAP government not regularise the sanitation workers despite being in power for the last eight years.