Salaries of MCD sanitation workers for Jun credited on Jul 1, says Mayor

New Delhi: Salaries of Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s sanitation workers for the month of June were credited on July 1, Mayor Shelly Oberoi said on Tuesday and claimed this never happened during the BJP’s 15-year rule in the agency.

Oberoi told a press conference at the Civic Centre here that there are around 30,500 full-time sanitation workers in the MCD and about 16,000 daily wagers. “Our dream is to make Delhi clean and beautiful. It is also the dream of the Aam Aadmi Party and our Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Sanitation workers are the backbone of the MCD. We want to congratulate our sanitation workers as their salaries for the month of June were credited on the first day of July,” the mayor said.

Terming it a “big achievement”, Oberoi claimed this is the “first time” that the salaries of sanitation workers in Delhi have been credited on the first day of the month.

The salaries have been credited on time because the MCD has also augmented its revenue generation, she added.

“In the last 15 years, when the BJP was ruling the corporation, they failed to pay salaries on time and they were delayed by two-three months,” Oberoi alleged.

Even when the salaries were credited, it would be towards the end of the month, she added.

“We have kept the promises made to the people of Delhi and the promise made to the sanitation workers,” Oberoi said, adding that AAP considers the sanitation workers as its family members. The BJP ruled the MCD during 2002-2007 and 2012-2022. Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal and Leader of House in MCD Mukesh Goyal were also present during the press conference.

“Under the AAP-led government in the MCD, we will root out corruption and work for the greater welfare of people,” Goyal said.

In another press conference later, AAP MLA and its MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak hailed Arvind Kejriwal, saying what the BJP could not solve in 15 years, the Kejriwal-led AAP has done in “three months”.

“Salaries were not getting paid on time, they used to remain pending for three-four and even six-twelve months for sanitation workers, many of them had to protest at the Civic Centre, in front of mayor’s office, BJP office... MCD was getting ruined due to corruption during the BJP rule,” he alleged.

He termed the crediting of salaries of sanitation workers in Delhi on the first day of the month a “big thing”.

In the last few years, during the BJP rule of the MCD, the subject of pending salaries of sanitation workers often became an issue over which it traded charges with AAP.

While it was in power in the MCD, the BJP often alleged that sanitation and other municipal workers were not getting salaries on time as the AAP government “was not releasing funds” it owed to the municipal corporations.

The Delhi government had rejected claims that it owed any funds to the municipal corporations.

A month ahead of the MCD elections, AAP had said it would ensure that salaries of sanitation workers were paid on time and contractual employees were regularised if the party won the civic polls.