#DPCC DELEGATION LED BY SHRI AJAY MAKEN MEETS UNION HOME MINISTER SHRI RAJNATH SINGH TO APPRISE HIM ABOUT THE CRISES IN THE MCDs—HOME MINISTER PROMISES APPROPRIATE ACTION.

On Feb 10, 2016

DPCC DELEGATION LED BY SHRI AJAY MAKEN MEETS UNION HOME MINISTER SHRI RAJNATH SINGH TO APPRISE HIM ABOUT THE CRISES IN THE MCDs—HOME MINISTER PROMISES APPROPRIATE ACTION.

NEW DELHI, Feb 9—A delegation of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, led by DPCC president Shri Ajay Maken, today met Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh at his residence and apprised him about the crises facing the Municipal Corporations of Delhi, because of which the employees went on strike for non-payment of their wages. The delegation drew the attention of the Home Minister towards the plight of the safai karamcharis, Group IV employees and beldars in Delhi. A memorandum submitted to Shri Rajnath Singh stated that it was “disheartening to see the current policy and yardstick for the rate of employment of safai karamcharis that is being followed in the three Municipal Corporations on the basis of the population census of 1981. The population of Delhi as per the 1981 census was 62.22 lakh whereas the population in 2015 is stimated at 182.48 lakh.

(A copy of the memorandum is enclosed). Other members in the delegation included chief spokesperson Smt. Sharmistha Mukherjee and leaders of the Opposition in the North and East Delhi MCs Shri Mukesh Goel and Smt. Varyam Kaur, respectively.

Talking to the media after meeting the Home Minister, Shri Maken said the conditional loan advanced by the Delhi Government to the North and East Delhi MCs would not bring a permanent solution to the problems facing the MCDs. He said the Aam Aadmi Party Government came to power with the promise that the ad hoc employees of the MCDs like sanitation workers and beldars would be regularized, but now when the AAP Government sanctioned conditional loan to the MCDs to tide over their financial crises, conditions were stipulated that no new recruitments of sanitation workers and beldars would be made, and those who are working on ad hoc basis for the past many years would be phased out within a year. Shri Maken said in reality, there was an urgent need to recruit more sanitation workers to take care of the increasing number of population in Delhi.

Shri Ajay Maken pointed out that in the New Delhi Municipal Corporation area, where the population density is very low, the sanitation workers are employed at the rate of one per 30,000 squre feet whereas in the other three major Municipal Corporations, the employment of sanitation workers are on the basis of the 1984 criteria of one employee per 60,000 square feet, which was totally inadequate, as the population in Delhi has multiplied by three times. He said due to the shortage of sanitation workers, no sanitation work was being done in the unauthorized colonies. Shri Maken said he strongly opposed the conditional loan sanctioned by the AAP Government to the MCDs as these are against the interests of half of Delhi, which lives in unauthorized-regularised colonies, and most of these colonies are out of the scavenging purview of the Municipal Croporations. He said the DPCC delegation sought the immediate withdrawal of the loan conditions stipulated by the AAP Government, and regularization of all sanitation workers with the Municipal Corporations of Delhi.

Shri Maken said the Home Minister carefully listened to the views of the Congress delegation, and promised to take appropriate action regarding the MCD crises.