Govt plans meeting to end sanitation workers’ strike

The Delhi government is mulling convening a meeting with officials of the Delhi Development Authority and commissioners of all three Municipal Corporations in Delhi to ensure an end to the agitation by sanitation workers.

“Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal directed the Chief Secretary on Friday to immediately convene a joint meeting of the DDA officials and commissioners of the three Municipal Corporations after the DDA admitted in a letter to the government that it owes service charges to the MCDs, the amount of which can be mutually worked out,” a government official said.

“They are willing to discuss their liability. So, a joint meeting may be called at the earliest,” the official said.

He said the step was for the welfare of sanitation workers agitating for over a week. Municipal sanitation workers went on an indefinite strike last Friday, demanding payment of long pending dues, timely payment of salaries and regular employment for those working on contract for over a decade.

Meanwhile, the strikers dumped garbage on the city’s roads to highlight their demands as the strike continued for the 8th day on Friday.

The sanitation workers dumped garbage on roads in south Delhi’s Saket area. Earlier this week, they threw garbage in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar, Vinod Nagar, Gazipur and west Delhi’s Janakpuri and Vikaspuri areas to register their protest.

“We are throwing waste on roads to attract the attention of authorities towards our plight and demands,” Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor Congress president Rajendra Mewati said.

“No one from the Delhi government or the MCD approached us to assure consideration of our demands. We will continue our strike,” Mewati said.

Delhi’s AAP government on Sunday claimed the strike had ended, but one of the main unions said the protest was still “going on”.