NEW DELHI, January 10, 2024—Municipal Corporation of Delhi All Unions Core Committee, supported by Delhi Congress and led by DPCC president Shri Arvinder Singh Lovely, today held a massive demonstration and dharna outside the MCD Headquarters, Civic Centre, at Minto Road to protest against the injustice and exploitation of the MCD workers as thousands of sanitation workers, and workers of other departments like education, health, horticulture, manhole cleaners and engineering protested as none of their pending demands had been met by the MCD, despite the ruling Aam Aadmi Party making many promises before the elections. Thousands of MCD workers, Congress workers and leaders, including Congress Councillors, participated in the dharna. The protesters warned the MCD Commissioner and the Mayor that if their demands were not met forthwith, the MCD workers will go on an indefinite strike, for which the Mayor, the Delhi Government and the BJP Government at the Centre will be responsible.
Shri Lovely assured the full support of the Delhi Congress for the MCD workers fight for justice. He said that if the MCD workers are not paid their wages on time, and they work with an unhappy state of mind, it will affect their performance and it would be a betrayal on the people of Delhi, who expect smooth civic services.
Besides Shri Arvinder Singh Lovely, prominent leaders who participated in the dharna and demonstration were ex-MLAs Jaikishan, Amrish Gautam, Charan Singh Khandera, Veer Singh Dhingan, Darshana Ramkumar, Surender Kumar, Mohammed Asif Khan, Anil Bhardwaj, Congress leader in the MCD Nazia Danish, MCD Core Committee chairman Rajkumar Dhingan, Rajiv Dhikolia, Maluk Chand Beniwal, Harnam Singh, Durga Pandit, Ram Kumar Bidlan, Jai Bhagwan Charan, Naresh Pihal, Vijay Kumar, Sanjay Kumar and thousands of MCD and Congress workers.
Shri Arvinder Singh Lovely, addressing the demonstrators, said that when Congress was in power, it ensured that the demands of the MCD workers were met without any protest or financial crunch, as both the MCD and the Delhi Government worked in close co-ordiantion with each other so that the works of the MCD were not adversely affected. He demanded the regularization of services of all contract workers engaged from March 1, 1996 to 998 and from March 1, 1998 to 2000. He said that according to the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission, the arrears of MAPC, DA and Bonus should be paid to the MCD workers forthwith, and the pension amount also hiked without any further delay. He also demanded that contrat employment of workers in the Education, Health, Horticulture, Sanitation and Manhole cleaners should be done away with and all ad hoc employees should be made permanent. He said that the arrears of the employees regularized between 2003 and 2004 should be cleared without further delay.
Ex-MLA Shri Jaikishan said that the Mayor’s announcement on November 29, 2003 that 6500 employees will be engaged on contract basis should be scrapped as fresh recruitments should be made as regular employees as appointing employees on contract basis was gross injustice to them, particularly the Valmiki community, who work as sanitation workers. He said that according to a Supreme Court order, any employee who completed 240 days’ attendance, should be regularized, and all employees, including contract workers, should be issued identity cards. He said that in some departments where there were acute shortage of workers, fresh recruitments should be made to fill the vacancies on a temporary basis. He also demanded cashless medical cards for the MCD employees to get them free treatment in hospitals.
Shri Jaikishan also demanded that an immediate family member of the MCD sanitation worker, who died on duty during the Covid-19 pandemic, should be a given regular job in the MCD. He that the arrears of the uniform allowance of Rs 5000 per employee, not been paid since 2017, should be cleared immediately. He also demanded that the houses allotted to the sanitation workers should be permanently allotted to them under the Ambedkar Awaz Yojna even after the death or retirement of a sanitation worker. He said that those employees who have been absent from duty for one year or more for whatever reason should be taken back to comply with the Labour Welfare Law.
