MillenniumPost
Delhi

Jain directs regularisation of MCD sanitation workers

NEW DELHI: Delhi Urban Development minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday directed his department's Principal Secretary and the director of local bodies to issue instructions to the three municipal commissioners to regularise the services of contractual sanitation workers of the BJP-ruled civic bodies.
The development comes a day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the Delhi Urban Development Department of Delhi to regularise contractual sanitation workers.
On Wednesday, the Delhi Assembly had passed a resolution asking the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) to turn all the contractual sanitation workers permanent.
"It is hereby instructed the immediate directions be issued to the Commissioners of all the three Municipal Corporations...that action is initiated for regularisation of services of all sanitation workers engaged by them," Jain wrote in his written instruction to the Principal Secretary (Urban Development) and the director of local bodies.
According to a senior civic official, there are about a total of 25,000 sanitation employees each in North MCD and SDMC.
"In North MCD, about 20,000-22000 of them are regular," he said. In EDMC, there are 15,000 sanitation workers, out of which 12,000 are regular and rest contractual," the official said.
For the past 16 days, five contractual sanitation workers have been on a hunger strike at the Civic Centre, demanding regularisation of their jobs.
The salary paid to irregular workers is much less than what is given to permanent workers, even though both do the same work and put in the same number of hours.
On Wednesday, appealing to them to end their hunger strike, the Chief Minister said that the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government viewed the sanitation workers' demands as genuine, while "BJP considers Dalits as untouchables".
Alleging that atrocities against Dalits had increased during the regime of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre, Kejriwal claimed that it was not a coincidence that all deaths reported during the recent Bharat Bandh protests were in BJP-ruled states.
All three municipal corporations in the national Capital all ruled by BJP.
The Chief Minister further alleged that BJP-ruled states, like Gujarat and Haryana, hired contractual workers because the party did not want to have permanent employees on the roll.
"If we get the services department, we will show how workers can be appointed on a permanent basis," Kejriwal stated.
Before Thursday's discussions came to an end, the Assembly passed by voice vote a resolution urging the protesting sanitation workers to end their fast.
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