MCD sanitation workers call off strike

New Delhi: Scores of agitating daily-wage and other irregular sanitation workers of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Saturday called off their strike after getting assurances from civic authorities that their demands of regularisation will be met, officials said.

A former mayor of the erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation said these workers had been agitating for the past two days, seeking regularisation, among other issues.

The MCD in a statement on Saturday said there has been a demand of regularisation of daily wage safai karmacharis (DWSKs) who were engaged a long time ago.

The move comes ahead of the anticipated civic polls here which is likely to be held

at the fag end of 2022 or early next year.

Municipal Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti, ex-mayor Jai Prakash, along with other senior social workers had been "assiduously working on the matter and had held marathon meetings for two consecutive days — October 14-15 — with representatives of the trade union to avert any difficulty for citizens of Delhi that could be caused due to the strike, while being always mindful to redress the grievances of Swachhta Sainiks".

As MCD has taken steps for them, All Karamchari Union Core Committee, led by its president Sant Lal Chawariya, called off the strike of swachchta sainiks, it said.

"In the process, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has decided to regularise the substitute or daily wager safai karamcharis of year 1998 and 2000 as well as the substitute or daily wager safai karamcharis engaged on compassionate grounds since April 1, 2003," the civic body said.