Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi assured reinstatement of contractual Dengue Breeding Checker (DBC) worker on Tuesday after he was wrongfully terminated earlier this month.
This comes in the face of Bharatiya Janata Party’s allegations that the contract of 22 DBC workers have been terminated in the face of rising cases of vector borne diseases in the city. “Aam Aadmi Party will soon dismiss all contract employees of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and hire their party workers in those jobs like they have done in Delhi government by hiring party cadres on co-terminus jobs. This is the reason why MCD
has done nothing to renew the contracts,” accused the Delhi BJP Media Head Praveen Shankar Kapoor.
When asked for clarification on the matter, the Mayor told Millennium Post that only four contracts were terminated recently due to officers in charge reporting unsatisfactory work or long leaves amidst a critical time like monsoon.
Virender Kumar, the DBC worker assured reinstatement had met with the Mayor after he was issued a termination letter claiming he had not been on duty during the flood season. He mentioned,“I have documents proving that I was given duty elsewhere, signed by the same authority who signed my termination letter.”
Upon being left unemployed on August 24, he had visited zone officers, MO and other senior officials of MCD, but had no help. “The officers in high ranks make mistakes, not understanding how they affect people like us. I have been out of employment for the first time since my 28 years of service without so much as a warning,” he said.
Rinku Kumar, one of the contractual DBC workers who had his contract recently terminated on August 26 said, “I was given a memo on August 4 claiming that the authorities found a larva in one of the buckets eight days after my visit. In the monsoon season,
larvae develop as quickly as within 4-5 days. Additionally, I also had eye infections. I explained all of this in my response to the memo the day after it was issued, but upon meeting the MO of the zone, I was immediately handed a termination letter.”
“I have been working with MCD for 16 years and have received not even a single warning. I have never taken a holiday or worked unsatisfactorily in my time. Now, on the possibility of one mistake they are terminating my employment without even giving me another chance. I have three small kids at home. How will I pay their school fees and keep up with household expenditures?” he added.