The six-day-long strike by sanitation workers of North and East municipal corporations over non-payment of salaries was called off on Tuesday. The sanitation staff will go back to work on Wednesday. The strike had resulted in mounds of garbage being piled on the roads and streets of the city as a mark of protest by the very people whose job it is to keep it clean. The garbage dumped on major intersections in North and East Delhi brought traffic to a grinding halt.
The strike by sanitation workers saw the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi Government launching a frontal attack against the BJP-led municipal corporations. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Tuesday that the Delhi Government has decided to write to the Centre asking it to either hand over East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) to it or dissolve it. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government’s move comes in the wake of the financial mess in EDMC and North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC).
Residents of North and East Delhi can now breathe easy as sanitation in and around their colonies and roads will improve from Wednesday. However, removing the garbage that has accumulated over the last six days will be a Herculean task. More than 13,000 sanitation workers from EDMC and 17,000 from the NMC had gone on strike last Friday demanding immediate disbursal of their salaries and other facilities. The peeved employees had also staged a series of protests and had burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Sources said the corporations disbursed salaries for the month of February while salaries for the month of March are yet to be released. “The strike has been called off and work will commence from Wednesday onwards,” said BB Tyagi, Standing Committee Chairman of EDMC.
“The corporations, after several rounds of talks, have released salaries for February and promised to hold discussions on our other demands. So we have decided to call off the strike and resume our duties from Wednesday. We have given the corporations three months to hear our demands and if they fail to pay heed we will not hesitate to halt civic services again,” said Rajkumar Dhingan, a representative of the employees.
Meanwhile, Sisodia said the municipal bodies were in a financial mess as they were steeped in large-scale corruption. Repeating Kejriwal’s demand he said it was high time that EDMC was dissolved and its day-to-day functioning was handed over to Delhi Government.
“The corporations have become a den of corruption. let the BJP leave municipal bodies and we will show them how effectively they can be run. Not only will we give salaries on time but we will turn them into profitable bodies in just one year,” he said.
Sisodia said the Delhi Government is going to write to the Centre asking it to hand over EDMC or dissolve it. It would be citing Section 490 of the existing Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 to establish its argument that the EDMC could be dissolved and its functioning handed over to the Delhi Government.
The DMC Act 1957 categorically states that if, in the opinion of the Central Government, the corporation persistently makes default in the performance of the duties imposed on it by or under this Act or exceeds or abuses its powers, it may by an order published, together with a statement of reasons therefore, in the Official Gazette, dissolve the corporation.”
The Act states the Corporation shall be given a reasonable opportunity of being heard before its dissolution. The Act says when the corporation is dissolved by an order, all councillors shall, on the date of the dissolution, vacate their office as such councillors and they shall cease to be represented in the municipal body during the period of its dissolution.
“All powers and duties conferred and imposed upon the corporation by or under this Act or any other law, shall be exercised and performed by such officer or authority as the Central Government may appoint in that behalf; all property vested in the corporation shall, until it is re-constituted, vest in the Central Government.”
Sisodia said the municipal corporations pay Rs 55 crore every month as salaries to safai karamcharis. “The municipal corporations have already been paid the due share. So, why have the employees not been paid for the past three months. Where has Rs 165 crore goneIJ This needs to be investigated.”
Meanwhile Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay has criticized Sisodia saying that AAP leaders are power hungry and they can go to any extent to grab power. “It would be better if the AAP concentrates on fulfilling the promises made to the people of Delhi instead of worrying about grabbing powers of corporations,” he said.