New Delhi: A day after sanitation workers in east and north Delhi called off their strike, garbage-filled roads in the national capital on Saturday became a political battleground as leaders belonging to the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party wielded the brooms and took part in the cleanliness drive.
This morning, Deputy Prime Minister Manish Sisodia was in his constituency Patparganj with other workers to clean the garbage that has filled the air in Delhi with a stench.
Other AAP leaders, including Ashutosh and Alka Lamba (in Chandni Chowk) and Sanjay Singh, were also seen cleaning loads of litter and rubbish scattered all over the roads.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay also took to the streets with a broom, and said: “We have target of 48 hours to clean Delhi.”
However, residents of various colonies here dismissed the AAP leaders` attempt to clean the roads of Delhi as just a photo opportunity. The residents refused to buy AAP's innocencein the entire matter, saying: “When everything has been cleaned, they are coming? Why? To do politics over the issue?”
News agency ANI also quoted residents as saying: “This is all AAP's doing, this is all `gandi rajneeti` (dirty politics).”
However, political parties continued to exchange tirade against each other.
AAP leader Aashish Khetan, amidst protest by residents, targetted the BJP, saying: “Who created this crisis? Who bankrupted the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)? Delhi will be cleaned when MCD is free of corruption.”
A news agency has, meanwhile, quoted Ashutosh as saying that it was to be pondered over why the MCD is considered to be so corrupt. A permanent solution needs to be found out for MCD workers, added Ashutosh.
Sanjay Singh, in the meantime, said the issue should not be politicised, and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Mayors and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should go together to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliberate upon the problems being faced by the MCD.
AAP MLA from Krishna Nagar, SK Bagga, who was, as per a TV channel, barred by the residents of his constituency from taking part in the drive, did not miss a chance to hit out at the BJP. “Now BJP is trying to take a revenge on people of Delhi because they did not vote for them.”
The war of words also erupted between AAP and Congress on Twitter.
AAP starts cleanliness drive after Sanitation Workers strike has been called off. Photo ops for AAP. Modi and Kejriwal are Masters of नौटंकी
— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) June 13, 2015
To which, Ashutosh replied:
I want to invite Digvijay Singh to join photo-op-drama. At least he/Congress will get an opportunity to feel the pain of SAFAI KARMCHARI.
— ashutosh (@ashutosh83B) June 13, 2015
Sanitation workers in east and north Delhi called off their strike yesterday after the Delhi government released their salary arrears even as political parties indulged in a blame game for the piles of waste lying on the streets that has caused concerns about a possible outbreak of diseases.
The strike ended on the day the Delhi High Court directed the city government to immediately release funds to the East Delhi Municipal Corporation for payment of salaries to its employees.
Earlier in the day, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi met sanitation workers on strike for the past 12 days to express his solidarity with them.
AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Dilip Pandey held a press conference in the afternoon and said the Arvind Kejriwal government had released the funds for payment of pending salaries of sanitary workers.
"We had released Rs 513 crore instead of Rs 493 crore to pay the salaries of North and East Municipal Corporation employees before the high court's order came," said AAP leader Dilip Pandey.
The announcement to pay salary arrears to sanitation staff had been made by Kejriwal at a rally in Delhi on May 8.
Hours after the release of funds was announced, the Akhil Bhartiya Safai Mazdoor Sangh, to which sanitation workers are affiliated, said the strike was called off.
"We got to know that the Delhi government has released Rs 513 crore towards our salaries. So, we have decided to call off the strike. Sanitation workers will be back on work from tomorrow (Saturday)," Sangh president Krishnapal Parcha had told a news agency.
"Delhi will be cleaned in just three days after we resume work," he added.
Parcha said over 10,000 sanitation workers were on strike for the last 12 days over the issue of non-payment of their salaries.
The sanitation workers from east and north municipal corporations had complained that they had not been given salaries for the last two months.
The strike had badly impacted the system of garbage collection in Delhi with piles of household waste spilling on roads.
At places, the strewn garbage stretched to several metres with even vehicles getting stuck. Citizens expressed concern at the possibility of breakout of diseases.
There were also reports of workers deliberately spilling garbage on the roads to register their protest in Mayur Vihar and Patparganj areas.
The national capital, on an average produces 8,630 tonnes per day of municipal solid waste, according to Delhi's Department of Environment.
(With Agency inputs)
