MCD logjam: ‘Is Kejriwal no longer an aam admi?’

In a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Municipal Corporation Doctor’s Association also pleaded that either the Delhi government or the Centre intervene “urgently” to bail out the MCD from the financial crisis so that salaries of all employees can be paid immediately.

The MCD employees, who are agitating over the non-payment of their salaries, blocked National Highway-24 here on Wednesday leading to disruption in traffic movement.

Ministers and agencies of the Delhi government and AAP leaders have started lifting garbage which has been lying unattended on the roads and community bins ever since the strike of civic workers started.

Hospitals and schools run by the civic bodies were also affected as doctors, other hospital staff, teachers and school employees joined the protest.

Protestors dumped garbage on roads and set ablaze tyres at various places.

Delhi Home Minister Satyender Jain tweeted, “If salaries are paid upto Dec than why strike”. The strike entered its eighth day today.

A delegation led by Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party chief Satish Upadhyay and three mayors met the LG and urged him to “intervene in the matter and ensure the release of pending funds under the Third Finance Commission as an interim measure to restore civic services”. The traffic was thrown out of gear when the municipal corporation employees took out a “begging bowl march” to protest.

BJP-ruled MCDs “shunned their responsibility as a vindictive step towards the people of Delhi and the shunting of BJP from Delhi’s politics”.

Countering the allegations, the government affidavit claimed it has “extended complete support that is legally and financially viable to the three corporations”, and has said it was the corporations which had “failed” to collect revenue from the various “internal” sources available to them.

The strike has crippled functioning of hospitals and schools run by civic bodies, besides garbage disposal even as the Delhi government continues to insist that it has already released the entire fund to the municipal bodies under non-plan head. Their workers are not part of the ongoing stir.

He said that “no one” could be sure as to whether the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) authorities had stated the truth in the court.