Civic strike enters day 4, east corp to crack whip
SUPERVISORS’ STIR Mayor claims all dues have been cleared, writes to LG for imposition of Essential Services Maintenance Act but protesters refuse to budge till all demands are met
East Delhi Municipal Corporation on Sunday may invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to try and force striking sanitation supervisors to join work. The sanitation supervisors have been on strike for the last four days to demand better pay.
The civic body’s decision to invoke ESMA comes as the sanitation condition in east Delhi started taking a turn for the worse, with garbage strewn around areas such as New Ashok Nagar, Vinod Nagar, Radhu Place and Lakshmi Nagar raising a stink .
Most of the areas of east Delhi are densely populated and even a day’s delay in disposal of garbage there can lead to a health crisis in the city.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation Mayor Neema Bhagat said that she had written a letter to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to invoke ESMA against the staff as they were not ready to return to duty despite their salary having been realised. She said that she had also assured the workers that their other demands would be looked into.
Around 400 members of the sanitation worker supervisors’ union started their strike in front of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s headquarter on Friday demanding promotion and disbursement of salary, which they said was pending for the past two months.
The Mayor said that under Delhi Municipal Corporation Act there are sufficient provisions to terminate the services of protest- ers if they did not join their duties in the interest of citizens. Even FIRs can be lodged, Bhagat added.
ESMA, legislated by Parliament of India, was established to ensure the delivery of certain services, which if obstructed would affect the normal life of people.
President of the All Municipal Corporation Sanitation Supervisor Union, Mukesh Kumar Vaidya, however, said that salaries had not been credited into
We are ready to go to jail, but will not end the strike till all our demands are accepted. More than 20 posts of sanitation supervisors are vacant for years
their account and they would continue with the strike.
“We are ready to go to jail, but will not end the strike till all our demands are accepted. More than 20 posts of sanitation supervisors are vacant for years,” he said.
A senior official of east corporation said that the civic agency had to invoke ESMA as several efforts to reach an agreement with the protesters through negotiations failed.
He also alleged that the supervisors were resorting to “blackmail”.
Officials said besides going on strike, the union members are also preventing other sanitation workers from doing their duty by not marking their attendance.
“Several meetings with senior functionaries at different levels, including the Mayor of east Delhi, has failed. They are supervisory staff and are not covered under labour laws, so they cannot go on a strike like this,” the official said.
He added that the striking workers were also preventing others from working. Hence, the junior sanitation staff had stopped coming to work.
“The east corporation has made all out efforts to sort out financial issues. There are some things that take time,” he said.
Aam Aadmi Party government has called for a twoday special session of the Delhi assembly from June 28.
A senior Delhi assembly official confirmed the development but did not disclose the agenda for which the House has been called for.
“We received a communication from the government on Sunday about the session, which was probably decided in the Cabinet meeting last week. The legislators have been informed but we are yet to know the agendas ,” an official said.
Sources, however, said that the Privileges Committee of the Assembly, headed by AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj, is expected to present its report on the desilting of drains by the Public Works Department and the municipal corporations during the session.
Leader of opposition Vijender Gupta, confirmed having received the notice but accused the government of ‘violating’ norms. “Normally, a 14- day notice is given before a session but this government is constantly violating rules,” said Gupta. He said that that the legislators need to be intimated beforehand about the agenda so that they can prepare. HTC