Garbage Piles Up in Delhi as Sanitation Workers Continue Strike; Chief Minister Calls Meeting

New Delhi:  Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will today meet the city’s sanitation workers who have been on a strike for the last 10 days over non-payment of salaries. Senior civic body officials will also attend the meeting which will be held at the Ramlila grounds.

The agitation has resulted in mounds of garbage lying unattended in many areas of North and East Delhi.

Last week, sanitation workers affiliated to different unions from the three civic bodies met Mr Kejriwal and his Deputy Manish Sisodia and raised the issue of not having received their salaries for the last two months.

The Chief Minister had assured the unions that the matter was being looked into.

“I met the concerned officials and told them that this has to be done. Your problems of pending salaries are being sorted out. We will give you much more than what you got last year from the government,” Mr Kejriwal had said.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister also informed the delegation that his government had paid its part of the amount to the corporations, adding that the Centre had not released Rs 600 crore meant for the Municipal Development Corporation, the largest civic body in the capital.

“If there is any such problem in Delhi Government tell me. If there is any such problem in NDMC tell me. But MCD is not under the Delhi Government,” he said.

The three civic bodies in the national capital are governed by the BJP which heads the government at the Centre.