Strike covers East Delhi with garbage

For Shyam Lal (57), a street vendor, who has been working in Vikas Marg for the last 32 years, the strike has affected his daily income as his  cart is parked near an overflowing garbage dump that has been locked by corporation workers. “I have lost most of my customers. They have now stopped coming to me because they think that the food I cook is unhygienic,” Lal said.

A similar scene was witnessed in areas such as Jeevan Hospital and the BSES office in Anand Vihar. “The risk of infections and diseases that can be contracted from the garbage, especially in this heat, is very high,” a nurse at the hospital said.

“Cars used to stop in front of our office barely for five minutes while our customers paid their electricity bills. But because the garbage is everywhere, cars are now forced to stop in the middle of the road which causes jams all the way till the Surya Vihar red light,” P Ojha, the guard at BSES office, said.

Workers of the corporation have been on strike as its salaries have not being paid for the past two months. To reassure the workers, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met them on Monday and promised to release  Rs 500 crore so that the civic body could pay all outstanding salaries it owed its employees till May 31.

However, officials said the corporation has been able to pay salaries till April through their own funds. “Every month, we need Rs 78 crore to release salaries to all employees. As soon as we received some funds, the workers were paid for the month of April. We are waiting for the Delhi government to give us more funds,” an official said.

Meanwhile, in an effort to draw attention to their plight, a group of sanitation workers on Wednesday held demonstrations in Patparganj constituency and burnt an effigy of Deputy Chief Minister and Patparganj MLA Manish Sisodia.

Delhi President of Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor Congress, Rajendra Mewati, said, “Till now, the arrears of sanitation workers have not been paid. Those on contract have not been made permanent. Until this happens, our protest will continue.”

Meanwhile, East Delhi residents continue to bear the brunt of the strike. “For almost five days now, there has been no garbage collection in our colony and in the nearby areas of Pushpanjali Enclave and Jagriti Enclave. The pile continue to rise,” D D Devgan, treasurer of the Vigyan Vihar RWA, said.

(The reporters are interns at The Indian Express)