Financial crunch forces MCD to delay salaries
Even as the strike by sanitation workers has finally been called off, the MCD seems to be caught in a catch-22 situation on the issue of payment of salaries. While on the one hand, the unions of sanitation workers are sharply divided on political lines, on the other the MCD is facing a cash crunch.
Delhi mayor P.R. Sawhney said that some of the unions, which had continued to be on strike despite MCD agreeing to regularise the sanitation workers, have finally accepted the offer and are now reporting back to duty. “The attendance is still not much but the strike has been called off and they would report for work soon,” said Mr Sawhney.
Early this week, a delegation of sanitation workers, led by Congress MLAs, had met chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who had directed the MCD to release the pay by Tuesday next. Mr Sawhney, however, said that the bone of contention between various leaders of the unions was on taking credit for breaking the deadlock.
There are 14 unions of sanitation workers and almost all of them have backing specific political parties.
MCD officials, however, feel that if the unions again got divided on political lines and created problems during the approaching Commonwealth Games-2010, it may face an embarrassing situation.
The MCD is facing a cash crunch, as was evident from the fact that it demanded Rs 7 crores from the Delhi government for street-scaping and beautification projects for the Games. Already, the contractors working for Games projects have not been paid their dues.
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