Sanitation workers end strike in Delhi

The sanitation workers of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) have withdrawn their indefinite strike that was started on March 24. The strike was called off after Bhartiya Janta Party's (BJP) state head Manoj Tiwari assured them that their demands will be fulfilled.

Huge piles of garbage could be seen around the north and east parts of the national Capital after the sanitation workers had announced their indefinite strike. The strike was called to demand the regularisation of over 20,000 sanitation workers, who were employed with the municipal corporations as contractual workers. The workers had also demanded to get the timely payment of their arrear salaries along with the free online medical cards.

The government on Thursday had issued orders to regularise all the contractual sanitation workers, however, the leaders from workers' side argued that the government had only issued orders to regularise but did not allocate any funds for the same to the concerned authorities, so the strike could not be called off.

However, after BJP's state head Tiwari's assurance, the strike was called off on Saturday. "These sanitation workers were on hunger strike from the past 20 days as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was not releasing funds for them. They are not taking care of their rights, they always create problems for them," said Tiwari.

The BJP state head also announced free insurance to the sanitation workers and premium for the same will be borne by the municipal corporations only. "We want to solve all their problems; Today, we have taken a historic decision in their favour." added Tiwari.