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MTS workers Protesting outside Civic Centre briefly detained
Police said the workers had been detained for protesting at a “non-designated” site. The workers, however, pointed out that the police detained them after 30 days of protesting at the same site.
New Delhi: Delhi Police on Thursday briefly detained several on-strike Multi Task Staff (MTS) of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) from their protest site outside the MCD Civic Centre on Minto Road, before releasing them by the evening.
Police said the workers had been detained for protesting at a “non-designated” site. The workers, however, pointed out that the police detained them after 30 days of protesting at the same site.
Devanand Sharma, general secretary of the Domestic Breeding Checker (DBC) Union, said: “The police did not give any reason for detaining us. They said they were being pressured and had already allowed us to protest for 30 days.”
A police officer told HT before the workers were released: “There were about a hundred MTS workers protesting for different reasons. Since they had gathered right outside the MCD office, the police staff repeatedly asked them to shift to a designated protest site but they refused. Therefore, we had to disperse the protesters and detain a few of them who will soon be released. Nobody is being held.”
However, the protesting MTS staff alleged that over a “thousand” workers had been detained and taken to some “nine” different police stations before being released around 5pm. “If we were protesting at a non-designated spot then why did they detain us after 30 days of protesting at the same site? Did the police not notice earlier that we were protesting at a wrong site? The police staff also refused to show us the order to detain us. We will resume our protest tomorrow, and continue it no matter how many times we are detained,” said Sharma.
The on-strike MTS workers are from the municipal corporation’s public health department—which comprises DBCs and contact field workers (CFWs)—and have been protesting since September 29. They demand “equalisation” of wages for all workers, compensatory employment for the families of those workers who die before retirement, and the provision of medical and earned leaves.
In a house meeting on October 14, MCD councillor and Leader of the House Pravesh Wahi had announced that a nine-member committee would be formed to bring a resolution within 24 hours. However, the same has not been achieved even after two meetings over the past two weeks.
“We are ready to give them medical leaves and holidays, but increasing their salary will require budgeting, while providing them compensatory employment would require a new law. Both of these things will require time,” said Wahi on Thursday.
Meanwhile, DBC Union president Madan Pal (55) said: “In the meetings, we are simply told to stop protesting and leave the site. We have been protesting for the same for the last 30 years, but our demands have not been met. We will continue our protest until they are.”
