Civic bodies have failed to regularise their workers: AAP

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that its saddening to see the AAP leaders doing politics over the economic crisis being faced by municipal employees.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled municipal corporations in Delhi have been giving false hopes of permanent jobs to domestic breeding checkers (DBC) who are employed for anti-mosquito measures by the public health departments.

A Delhi civic body worker sprays disinfectant on a police vehicle on during Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. (Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

AAP MLA Somnath Bharti said that despite relying on DBC workers for the last 22 years to check breeding of mosquitoes, the three civic bodies have failed to regularise them or provide them with respectable posts. “The services of not only DBC workers, but thousands of other employees should have been regularised long ago but the MCDs did not to do it,” he said.

Bharti cited the recent example of Delhi government regularising 700 Delhi Jal Board staffers, and promised that the DBCs would also be extended similar benefits when AAP comes to power in the muicipal corporations.

“We have repeatedly raised concerns regarding employees working for the MCD. They are subjected to severe exploitation. Recently, 700 non-regular workers of the Delhi Jal Board were regularised. On the contrary, we have the BJP with its adverse policies. Whenever communicable diseases spread, the DBC workers are required to carry out door-to-door inspections. During the entire coronavirus pandemic, they put their lives at stake and worked tirelessly,” Bharti said.

There are around 3,500 DBC workers in the three MCDs who have been on contractual posts over the last two decades.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that its saddening to see the AAP leaders doing politics over the economic crisis being faced by municipal employees.

“It was pleasant to hear Somnath Bharti acknowledging the hard work put in by municipal employees during Covid. So far, we’ve always seen the AAP leaders condemning civic bodies and their employees as corrupt. Services of not only DBC employees but thousands of other employees too should also have been regularised long back, but MCDs could not to do it due to lack of funds withheld for last seven years by the Delhi government,” he said.

Kapoor said that the South MCD has already brought the proposal to regularise their (DBCs) posts and services.

“Had the civic bodies been getting their full funds regularly, they would have regularised the DBCs by now, along with all other class IV employees. It will be better if the AAP leaders shed their petty allegation politics and make their chief minister release funds to the three civic bodies,” he added.

The Delhi government has maintained that it does not owe any dues to the three civic bodies, and alleged that the financial crisis being faced by the municipalities was due to rampant corruption by its elected BJP leaders.