Unpaid Employees Hence Unclean Delhi

 

Tussle between Government and MCD, forces people to live in unhygenic conditions 

A tussle between authorities has put the Dil of Delhiwalon ki at stake. Heaps of Garbage continues to pile up as the strike of cleanliness workers continues in pockets of national capital due to their unpaid salaries. Class-IV employees of Municipal corporation have halted cleanliness operations as their salaries of about six to eight months has not been released by civic bodies.  

Public anger on the issue is clearly visible. With streets littered like never before and sewer lines choked with garbage, Delhi seems to be grappling with hygiene crisis. The chances of bacterial, fungal and vector borne diseases due to exponential rise in accumulation of garbage have increased at an alarming rate.

 

The sewage system of the capital is one of the most strained system in the country. Continuation of strike indicates suspension of periodic cleaning of this system. Lesser the frequency of sewage cleaning, more is the accumulation of toxic gases in the sewer chambers which makes cleaning a risky affair for workers. According to the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), 44 people died in Delhi between 1993 and 2019 while cleaning septic tanks and sewers. People have also reported about the reverse flow of water into their homes due to choked outflows.  

The aesthetic degeneration of civic space has infused disinterest in senior citizens and kids to step out for recreational purposes. 

The trader community is especially concerned about the dumping. Sushil Singh, a Pooja materials seller from Jahangirpuri complains about the littering around the stalls. He says “People feel irked by waste around the Pooja items shop. It impacts the sale and material hygiene of products.” 

Devender, owner of a tailoring shop in Jahangirpuri, Delhi concurs and tells The Voices “I asked the Safai Karamcharis to clean the garbage dump site and filth from road, but they cited strike as a reason for non-cooperation. Even if a few workers agreed to do the cleaning, they were stopped by Union members who were not in a mood to tolerate any sort of breach in strike conduct.” 

Devender did approached the local Councillor for the solution but Councillor expressed a sense of helplessness and blamed the State Government for the non-payment of dues.  

A representative of the Councillor of Jahangirpuri told The Voices “Delhi govt owes Rs13,000 crore to three Civic Bodies Management-salary and other developmental works. A sum of Rs 938 crore was released by the State govt for payment of dues but the clearance of rest is awaited.”  A major chunk of the cleaning labourers’ workforce is not registered as they are recruited by contractors on wage basis. They too don’t receive salaries on regular basis.

Tragedy of Trifurcation

It was the Trifurcation of the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2012, which propelled the financial crisis. North Delhi Municipal corporation had to bear the brunt of it. It got more unauthorized and lower taxation category colonies under its belt, which do not contribute a lot to revenues through property taxes. As per the reports out of the combined revenue of corporations in 2019-20 , which stood at Rs 6725 crore, SDMC alone had a share of 48%.  

Trifurcation has also resulted in lowering of budget allocation. Due to reduced budget at disposal MCD has been forced to compromise with salary and development expenses. The budget for a block which stood at Rs 2 crore during 2007 now stands at Rs 25 lakhs a year.  

Since then, a financial unification of the civic body resources has been proposed at several occasions. Civic body representatives confirmed the same to The Voices. “We proposed that if budget for all three municipalities is merged then cross body cooperation in moments of shortage would be possible. As SDMC is mostly of elite class people, they get revenue from house tax and other taxes, which other zones lack.”  

But proposal of such unification has not been approved yet.  

Meanwhile, the state’s ruling Aam Admi Party (AAP), has alleged corruption and financial irregularities in MCD and cited same as the reason for financial crunch. In a press conference earlier in the year, AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj raised concerns about the Municipal corporations’ not ensuring the collection of dues from Delhi Development Authority (DDA). He said “DDA owes more than Rs 2,000 crore to North and South corporations. The party in power in MCD, is the one which controls DDA. Hence, BJP should answer why any step hasn’t been taken to recover the dues from DDA.” 

Delhi being a Union Territory also, involves Center as a stakeholder. The Centre’s grants to municipal bodies come under specific grants for projects, while Delhi government is supposed to pay a certain amount to the MCDs.  

The Courtroom Intervention in the crisis

But political blame game has not brought any sort of resolution to the crisis. Courts have stepped in. In an interesting development on March 5, 2021, a division judge bench of Delhi High Court issued bailable warrants against the President and Secretary of MCD Swachhta Karamchari Union as they failed to appear before the court in an application filed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).  

The Court noted “This is absolutely wrong, your salaries and pensions must be cleared. We are looking into it, we will assure that. But if you go on strike again and again and harass the public, is that right? This kind of anarchy, is it right? If required, we will attach their property. The work you’re doing for the city is very important.”  

In response to the warning from court, President of the Union verbally assured courts about suspending any future plan to continue strike.  But that calls for an early creative action to resolve the payment crisis.  

In an interesting noting during a hearing on the case of unpaid dues, Delhi High Court confirmed Right to receive Salary and Pension as a fundamental right under Article 21. It warned that it will stop perks of councillors as well as senior officers of civic bodies and utilise it for payment of salaries of MCD workers, if required.  

Meanwhile a section of the people are doing Shram-daan and cleaning their surroundings by themselves. And most of them agree that in this tug of war between authorities, it is them, the people who are worst hit.  

Meanwhile, Delhi High court firmly directed the three municipal corporations to pay salaries to all corporation employees by April 5. A detailed clarification from municipal corporations on adherence to the order is yet awaited, as second wave of pandemic has disrupted the order of things.

Story Edited by Usha Nouduri