NGT Orders East Delhi Municipal Body To Act As Workers’ Strike Goes On

New Delhi: As the strike by East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) sanitation workers over the non-payment of three months’ salary continues after four days, the city’s garbage crisis continues to get out of hand. Taking cognisance of this, the National Green Tribunal today instructed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to clear up the mounting garbage and find a quick resolution to conclude the strike.

The trans-Yamuna region which comes under the EDMC’s jurisdiction has seen garbage pile up and dumped in open areas as collection activities have come to a complete standstill.

“Yes, we have gotten the order from the Green Court. We have been trying our best to pacify the sanitation workers and resolve the issue of not having funds. Some funds have now been released,” Asha Singh, Deputy Mayor, East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) told NDTV.

“We spoke to the workers today and will be sitting down with them tomorrow as well. Hopefully the strike will be resolved by tomorrow or day after,” she added.

The past few days have seen a tussle between the BJP dominated MCD and AAP-lead Delhi government with both parties blaming each other over the non-payment of salaries since November 2016. The MCD has accused the Delhi government of holding back funds while the latter had accused it of “grave corruption” and financial irregularities.

To resolve the problem, the Delhi Government had announced an advance payment of ₹ Rs 119 crore to the EDMC yesterday. However, the unions’ of the agitating sanitation workers had said that this amount is too little.

As part of their demonstrations, protesting workers dumped muck taken from drains and garbage on the streets today. They also protested outside the EDMC headquarters in Patparganj and in front of AAP MLA Anil Kumar Bajpai’s camp office in Gandhi Nagar. Around 17,000 workers, including permanent and contractual ones, have been on strike.

East Delhi is one of the largest generators of garbage in Delhi-NCR with the Ghazipur landfill site receiving an estimated 2,500 tonnes of waste from it, daily.

Also Read: Capital Delhi Awaits Its First Zero Waste Colony

(With Inputs From Agencies)