The Delhi High Court on Friday came to the rescue of 25 lakh daily commuters of the Delhi Metro by restraining the non-executive staff of the Metro from going ahead with their planned strike on Saturday.
Earlier, the employees had threatened to halt the services of the Metro on Saturday if their eight-point demands, including pay revision, were not fulfilled.
However, reacting to the court’s order, DMRC Staff Council Secretary Ravi Bharadwaj said, “Though our demands have not been discussed properly in the meeting. Respecting the courts order, we will postpone the protest scheduled for tomorrow. But our fight will continue and will wait for the next hearing.”
After an urgent hearing on a petition filed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the court passed the interim order holding that prima facie, the proposed action of the Metro employees does not seem to be justified.
The court said it can’t allow the services of the DMRC, which caters to around 25 lakh commuters daily, to be disturbed. It reasoned the employees had not given notice for strike much in advance and also the talks between them and the Metro is in progress.
“Around 25 lakh residents of Delhi, largely from middle income group, travel by Metro and if the Metro services are paralysed they would be greatly inconvenienced. Therefore, I incline to grant ad-interim relief as sought in the application. The respondents are restrained from going on strike on June 30 or till further orders in the matter,” read the five-page order issued by the court.
Meanwhile concerned with the hardship commuters may face in the event of the strike, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has advised the DMRC and employees to sort out their issues and do not hamper the metro services. The Chief Minister also said he will impose Essential Services Maintenance ACT (ESMA) as last resort to stop the strike.
“Whereas all genuine demands of Metro employees should be met, strike would cause inconvenience to lakhs of people. Strike should not take place. Whereas Government imposing ESMA is a last resort, I would urge employees to not resort to strike,” tweeted Kejriwal.
Also, the Delhi Deputy CM called an urgent meeting with Metro officers to discuss the demands of the agitating employees. Further, the Delhi Government has sent files related to ESMA to lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.
The Delhi Transport minister Kailash Gahlot has also sent a letter to the DMRC Managing Director and said, “Efforts be made to resolve the issues as early as possible so that Metro operations are not hampered in any manner.” The Minister has offered his help to the DMRC in case his intervention is needed to resolve the issue.
The Metro Staff Council said, “ESMA is not applicable for Delhi Metro. You can see the Bangalore metro as an example of this. If the ESMA will be forcefully imposed on us we are also ready to fight,” said Bharadwaj.
There are nearly 12,000 people employed with the DMRC, with non-executive staffers accounting for about 9,000. The employees have been demonstrating for the last four days at various metro interchanges, including Yamuna Bank, Shahdara, Rajiv Chowk, Punjabi Bagh, to fulfill their eight point demand- staff representation body, job security, security in work place, arrear payments, occupational safety and health and maternity leave and proper guidelines for sacking of an employee and that too in extreme conditions and reinstatement of metro staff that have been terminated.