Kejriwal bats for regularising sanitation workers on contract

NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asked state urban development minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday to direct the director of local bodies to take steps to regularise the appointment of contract sanitation workers in the three municipal corporations. He announced this in the Delhi assembly during the discussion on the hardships faced by sanitation workers.
Five contractual sanitation workers have been on a hunger strike for 16 days at the Civic Centre, demanding regularisation of their jobs. These irregular employees get a smaller salary than permanent workers though they do the same work and put in the same hours.

Appealing to them to end the hunger strike, Kejriwal said that the AAP government viewed the sanitation workers’ demands as genuine, while “BJP considers Dalits as untouchables”. Alleging that atrocities against Dalits had increased, Kejriwal claimed that it was not a coincidence that all deaths reported during the recent Bharat Bandh protests were in BJP-ruled states. The three municipal corporations all have BJP as the ruling party.

Kejriwal alleged that BJP-ruled states like Gujarat and Haryana hired contractual workers because that party did not want to have permanent employees on the rolls. “If we get the services department, we will show how workers can be appointed on a permanent basis," Kejriwal declared.

Before the discussions ended, Delhi assembly passed by voice vote a resolution urging the protesting sanitation workers to end their fast.