Strike by municipal workers continues to cripple services

The municipal workers' strike continued to hit multiple services in the city on the seventh day today, prompting Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to recommend AAP government to extend "conditional" loans to the civic bodies as he felt further protests may cause law and order problem.
The strike crippled functioning of hospitals and schools run by civic bodies, besides garbage disposal even as Delhi Government insisted that it has already released the entire fund to the BJP-ruled municipal bodies under non-plan head.
Contractors of North and East Delhi Municipal corporations today joined the stir, further compounding the problem.
The three civic bodies told the Delhi High Court that they do not have the money to pay salaries for January 2016 and the coming months to their employees and questioned the government as to how it can "abdicate its responsibilities".

The employees have been paid salaries till December 2015, the civic bodies told a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath. The Delhi government has not released the entire funds, they alleged.
In his letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, Jung warned the law and order situation in the national capital might deteriorate if the strike by sanitation workers, teachers and doctors continued any further, sources said.

"The Lt Governor in his letter written to Kejriwal and Sisodia said that there is presently a serious situation in Delhi and, if the strike continues, the law and order situation may deteriorate in Delhi," sources said.

They said, "LG has recommended to the government to extend conditional loans or grants to the municipal corporations so that they could pay salaries and other dues being demanded by the striking employees."
Meanwhile, the contractors of NDMC and EDMC have also extended their support to the ongoing strike, threatening they will stop all ongoing works of the two municipal corporations from February 10.
Thousands of agitators also took out a protest march from the Civic Centre to Rajghat carrying begging bowls in hand to draw attention to their demands. It threw traffic out of gear on outer Ring Road, ITO and other arterial roads.

The protestors included sanitation workers, doctors, engineers, nurses, paramedics and other technical and ministerial staff of municipal corporations.
"Except for emergency services all other services including OPD and admission of patients have been crippled due to strike by the doctors, nurses and paramedical staff of North and East corporations," Dr RR Gautam, president of Municipal Corporation Doctors Association, said.
Around 8,000 senior and resident doctors, 10,000 nurses as well as paramedical staff of 7 hospitals and hundreds of polyclinics and dispensaries under NDMC and EDMC are on strike since January 27.