JOIN USA sanitation worker, who has been a daily wager for around 15 years, set himself ablaze in south Delhi’s Najafgarh on Saturday alleging that the corporation officials were demanding a bribe to give him a permanent post.
The worker, Phool Singh, 50, has been admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital.The issue disrupted the East Corporation’s House meeting on Monday. A councillor from Vishwas Nagar, Rattan Singh, said that regularisation of sanitary workers is a long pending matter and it should be dealt with immediately.
“The safai karamcharis have been demanding permanent posts since there was a unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi,” said Rattan Singh, a Congress councillor.
“The apathy towards them is brought to the fore when a sanitation worker tried to immolate himself after corporation officials demanded Rs 40,000 for giving him a permanent post,” he added.
“When will the 11,000 contractual employees under the East Corporation be given permanent jobs? Is the civic agency waiting for a real suicide case?” Singh queried.
Commissioner S Kumarswamy said that the East Corporation is in the process of regularising around 6,000 employees.
“These contractual sanitation workers will be regularised within six months. The corporation is working on fixing a time frame to expedite the process of regularisation of employees,” said Kumarswamy.
Even the South Corporation officials said that the civic agency has been regularising contractual employees at regular intervals.
The south civic agency has suspended sanitary inspector and assistant sanitary inspector of Department of Environment Management Service of Najafgarh Zone with immediate effect.Chairman of the standing committee of South Corporation, Satish Upadhyay, said that the civic agency has zero tolerance towards corruption.
“A thorough probe has been ordered into the case and the guilty will not be spared,” said Upadhyay, who is also Delhi BJP unit president.
A case has been registered and the matter is under investigation, said a senior police officer.