AAP moves towards regularising contractual employees

Taking a major step to regularise jobs of thousands of contractual employees, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi on Saturday asked all departments to submit a finalised proposal before November 15 for giving permanent jobs to such employees.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said after a cabinet meeting here: "Today the cabinet decided that every department of the Delhi government will submit a proposal to regularise contractual employees working with them by November 15. The Chief Secretary will monitor the progress."

A government statement said later that after the proposals are submitted, a unified policy will be taken up for consideration by the government.

"Last year, the cabinet had decided that all contractual employees against existing posts will be regularised," Kejriwal said after the meeting.

"The process for regularisation of services of guest teachers is already at an advanced stage and the proposal has been finalised," he added.

There are around 50,000 contractual employees working with different departments of Delhi, apart from over 16,000 guest teachers in government schools.

The contractual employees, including nurses and sanitation staff, have been demanding that the AAP government live up to its assurance to give relief by regularising their jobs.

The cabinet also approved the Health Department's proposal to set up more 'mohalla' clinics (neighbourhood clinics) in Delhi.

The Chief Minister directed Health Minister Satyendar Jain to convene a meeting of all other ministers for identification of land where new mohalla clinics can be set up without any difficulty.

At present, 107 mohalla clinics are functional in the city.

A proposal to increase the capacity of an under-construction hospital in Ambedkar Nagar from 200 beds to 600 beds was also approved.

"Earlier, we were making a 200-bed hospital at the cost of Rs 125 crore. But now we will have 600 beds at a total cost of Rs 181 crore," the Chief Minister said.

This will bring down the per bed cost from Rs 62 lakh to Rs 13.75 lakh, he added.

The cabinet also decided to set up a ministerial task force to tackle garbage disposal in Delhi. This task force will be headed by Health Minister Satyendar Jain and will have Water Minister Kapil Mishra and Environment Minister Imran Hussain as members.

The task force will hold regular meetings with all stakeholders, including the three municipal corporations, and submit its report to the Supreme Court by November 10 on the issue of garbage disposal.

The AAP government also announced its decision to make permanent 'ghats' on the river Yamuna bank by 2017. Kejriwal said the process of making 'pucca' (concrete) ghats was already started in light of the upcoming Chhath Pooja.

"All ghats will be made concrete by next year's (2017) Chhath Pooja," he said.

--IANS

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