Delhi civic body strike may hit vaccination drive

NEW DELHI: As Delhi moves towards commencing a mega vaccination drive in its battle against Covid, an ongoing strike by civic body employees to demand outstanding wages may throw a spanner in the works.

The vaccination programme will start in the city from January 16, with municipal employees — such as primary health workers, nursing staff and teachers — likely to be roped-in for the programme.

Nurses, paramedic staff, ward boys, primary teachers along with the employees of other departments in civic bodies, majorly from the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, have been on strike since January

7 against non-payment of pending salaries for the last 3-5 months.

AP Khan, convener Confederation of MCD Employees Union, said nurses, paramedic staff, sanitation staff and teachers will be engaged in the process from the civic bodies, but it has been decided that there will be “complete non-cooperation”.

“We have communicated to the concerned heads of the health and education departments of the civic bodies regarding our non-cooperation. It is a matter of our survival and we cannot keep working without salaries. It has been over three months since nurses and paramedic staff in north corporation received their salaries. The teachers have not been paid since July 2020,” Khan said.

According to details, nearly 3,500 employees of the three municipalities are likely to be roped-in during the massive vaccination programme, which will be conducted in different phases.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has 64 vaccination centres including at its three hospital — Hindu Rao, Kasturba and Girdhar Lal. Nearly 1,000 employees of north corporation were imparted training for vaccination programme. Similarly, the number of vaccination centres in South Delhi Municipal Corporation is 58 and nearly 800 workers have been trained for the drive. Officials of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation said they have made 32 centres for vaccination programme and have imparted training to over 250 employees.

Officials in the health department said that once the vaccination drive begins in full swing with 1,000 (vaccination) centres, the government has estimated it would need 3,500 trained personnel to run these booths.

“Of the 3,500 personnel, around 1,750 will be workers from the municipal corporations (MCDS). These personnel will run vaccination booths and include doctors, nurses, paramedic staff and even teachers,” a senior official said.

Government officials said the strike will not immediately impact the drive. “The first phase is starting with just 89 centres in Delhi. So, the strike will not have much of an impact.none of the 89 centres are in any MCD facility. We have calculated the manpower requirement and found that only around 50-60 MCD workers will be needed in the first phase,” a second senior official said.

Civic authorities said they are reaching out to the agitators and have appealed them to “not create hinderance”. They say that if the deadlock does not end, then action — such as invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act — may be taken.

Jai Prakash, mayor north corporation, said that vaccination programme is a national campaign and employees would have to participate in the drive.

“I have appealed all the employees to return to work . Issue of salaries and vaccination drive should not mix and we are making efforts to release pending salaries as soon as possible,” he said.