AAP, Delhi government convince sanitation workers' unions to call off strike

NEW DELHI: AAP had as much a role in resolving the sanitation workers' strike as Delhi government. Delhi convenor Dilip Pandey and cabinet minister Sandeep Kumar met with the unions and convinced them to call off the strike after assurances that the government will make the entire payment for the financial year 2015-16 to the corporations by December.

The government has already cleared dues up till December and the funds that will be released now would have ordinarily been released around February-March. The government and party, in fact, got the unions to say in a letter that Delhi government had released funds to the corporations on time while the money was more than what was given last year. This goes against the BJP's stand--the ruling party in the corporation--which maintained that the government is not paying ci vic agencies.

“The unions also realized that they can't keep blackmai ling the government since it is the corporations which have to release salaries. We were willing to help them legally too in getting DDA to pay up In fact, CM Arvind Kejriwal wrote to LG Najeeb Jung a few days ago to put pressure on DDA to pay off their dues.AAP has raised the issue of corporations not functioning properly earlier as well,“ said a government official.

Pandey , who negotiated on behalf of the party , said the corporations had collapsed under BJP and also openly challenged BJP to quote the example of the agencies as a model of good governance if it believed all was well. “We met the east Delhi unions. While they agreed to call off the strike if the government paid up, they also asked us to help get their arrears released. While that is the corporation's job, we agreed to do evrything we could for them,“ said Pandey.