Centre says can’t release funds for sanitation workers’ salary

Supreme Court on Monday expressed its disappointment after the Centre informed it that it would not be able to release money to tide over the crisis that has arisen due to the sanitation workers’ strike in east Delhi over the non-payment of salaries.

The Centre conveyed its inability to provide funds before a bench of justices MB Lokur and Deepak Gupta, which on October 3 had asked it to release money without “causing prejudice” to its case pending against the Delhi government over the sharing of funds. The government had in the last hearing assured the court that it would pay ₹500 crore to the municipal bodies “in the interest of the public”. The assurance came at the court’s instance to resolve the ongoing crisis.

A similar request was made to the Centre upon which additional solicitor general Maninder Singh took time to get instructions. On Monday, Singh said: “I have been informed that this would not be possible.”Garbage have not been picked up from east Delhi’s streets for the past 27 days. The workers are demanding regularisation of workers employed after 1998, payment of pending salaries and arrears. This is sixth strike by the municipal sanitation staff in east Delhi in the last three-anda-half years. “We had expected the Centre to reciprocate the Delhi government’s offer on humanitarian grounds and the additional solicitor general sought time to take instructions. Unfortunately and tragically, the Centre has now filed an affidavit that it is not prepared to make any payment at all,” the SC order said.