Delhi’s south municipal House suspended after ruckus

SDMC mayor Mukesh Suryan condemned the ruckus and said that the Opposition parties are “only interested in disrupting the house”

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) house meeting on Wednesday descended into chaos and was suspended after the Congress accused the civic body of not raising the salary of workers engaged in controlling vector-borne diseases, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) charged the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of misbehaving with an IAS officer during a ward inspection.

The Congress accused the civic body of not raising the salary of workers engaged in controlling vector-borne diseases, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) charged the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of misbehaving with an IAS officer during a ward inspection. (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

SDMC mayor Mukesh Suryan condemned the ruckus and said that the Opposition parties are “only interested in disrupting the house”.

Senior Congress leader Abhishek Dutt, the councillor from Andrews Ganj, alleged that his party workers were allegedly manhandled by the ruling party when they tried to bring in a fogging machine to the house. “These machines, weighing around 15kg, are being operated by the domestic breeding checkers (DBCs) and contractual field workers (CFWs), who get a monthly salary of ₹12,000. This when their counterparts in New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) are getting ₹21,060 per month there. Despite repeated requests, their salaries have not been matched. Not only that, the old and heavy fogging machines, running on kerosene oils, are causing health hazards to them,” he said.

Dutt also said that his party councillors will continue their protest till SDMC brings the salaries of frontline corona warriors at par with their counterparts in other civic bodies. “The BJP-ruled SDMC has nothing to do with democratic values. Their leaders use muscle power, when anybody questions them,” he said.

AAP councillors too protested against an alleged incident of misbehaviour by the husband of councillor when a deputy commissioner inspected his ward.

“Is this a way to deal with the officer? The BJP leaders want to create fear among the common people,” said Prem Chauhan, the leader of Opposition.

SDMC mayor Suryan said the Opposition parties have only an agenda to disrupt the House. “The behaviour of the Congress and AAP councillors is condemnable in any case. They don’t like to come forward for a healthy discussion, on the issues of development,” he said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of employees of the SDMC west zone staged a “pen down, tool down” strike on Wednesday, against the alleged misbehaviour against the IAS officer. “We, the employees of engineering, sanitation, building, licensing, health and education departments of SDMC (west zone) strongly condemn and protest against the shameful act of the councillor’s husband,” the SDMC (west zone) employees’ group said in its statement.