Political row over move to relocate sanitation workers

CLAIMING THAT there is acute shortage of safai karamcharis in rural areas of the capital, south Delhi mayor Shyam Sharma has ordered that they be pulled out from urban pockets under SDMC’S jurisdiction. However, the move met with opposition from Congress in the House meeting on Friday, with the party linking it to the upcoming civic polls.

Leader of opposition Farhad Suri alleged that “barely a month ahead of fresh civic elections in the capital, the BJP was trying to placate residents of rural areas of Delhi because they know they have done nothing for them in the last five years”.

The mayor told The Indian Express that while in some urban wards there are between 250 and 400 sanitation workers, most rural areas have a strength of 50-80. “There is disparity in the strength of staff and that affects sanitation in these areas. So, post delimitation, I urged the officials to redistribute the sanitation workers in all areas evenly”.

The Congress questioned the timing of the decision and the need to relocate safai karamcharis instead of hiring new ones. “Why did you not think of the plight of those in urban villages till now? Why is this decision being taken a month before the election?” Suri said.

The opposition also claimed that workers were being removed “mostly from wards of Congress councillors, so that the state of sanitation in their wards deteriorates just before the polls”.

While the mayor said in the House that the decision would be rolled back, he later said redistribution of sanitation workers across wards would continue. “I have asked officers to ensure this is followed. We will hire more safai karamcharis...”

There are approximately 25,000 safai karamcharis in the jurisdiction of the SDMC and over one lakh throughout the city. Eighty-three villages under the four zones from rural pockets of the civic body fall mostly in the Najafgarh and Mehrauli areas.