After organising a dialogue with safai karamcharis at Ramlila Maidan on Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and demanded Rs3,000 crore from the Centre to pay pending salaries of sanitation workers, doctors and teachers of municipal corporations in the city.
In an hour-long meeting with Jaitley, Kejriwal and his Deputy Manish Sisodia explained to him the Delhi Government’s financial constraints and sought assistance for the civic bodies. “The Chief Minister asked for Central assistance for six months of salary payment for these municipal corporations, which is around Rs3,000 crore,” a source said.
Sisodia said Kejriwal presented before Jaitley the financial condition of Delhi and the Centre is looking into the matter. “We presented before him Delhi’s financial condition. Delhi gives around Rs1.37 lakh crore tax to the Central Government and in return, gets Rs325 crore from the Central share.
The Deputy Chief Minister exuded confidence of getting assistance from the Centre. “We have requested them... By analysing all data, some result will come out in next few days. The condition of MCD is also bad. If something can be done about their 5-6 month salary... By hiking the property tax or by making some reforms the Delhi Government will cope later,” he added.
Both North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) are cash-strapped, unable to pay salaries of many employees. A section of the striking sanitation workers have lately been protesting against the AAP dispensation after the corporations held Kejriwal Government “responsible” for their financial woes.
On Monday, Kejriwal had announced that his Government will release pending salaries of sanitation workers, doctors and teachers of two municipal corporations for April and May.