Ask DDA to pay dues to civic bodies: Sisodia tells Jung

Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday said Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung should ask the Delhi Development Authority to pay the outstanding dues to the three municipal corporations of Delhi whose workers are on strike.

"The Delhi cabinet passed a resolution requesting the LG, who is also the DDA chairman, to direct the DDA to immediately pay its outstanding tax dues of at least Rs.1,575 crore to the three municipal corporations," Sisodia told reporters at the Delhi Secretariat.

"This will facilitate immediate release of salaries to sanitation workers, teachers and doctors by the North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations," he added.

Sisodia said that according to the information provided by the civic bodies, the outstanding dues of the East Corporation against the DDA up to the period ending on March 31, 2016, was Rs.353 crore whereas the South Corporation's outstanding dues from the DDA amounted to Rs.593 crore. DDA has to give property tax of around Rs.808 crore to the North Corporation.

PWD Minister Satyendar Jain said the work on clearing away the garbage piled up during the civic and sanitary workers' strike has been going on since Saturday.

He said teams of the PWD and Aam Aadmi Party workers have successfully cleaned 70 percent garbage dumps in various areas and disposed the trash at designated landfill sites.

Meanwhile, according to sources, Jung has also written a letter to the Delhi government asking it to resolve the problems of the protesting employees of the three civic bodies.

The move came after a group of protesting employees of the three civic bodies met Jung and apprised him about their problem of non-payment of salaries.

On Monday morning, hundreds of employees of the three municipal corporations staged a noisy demonstration outside Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra's residence in east Delhi's Yamuna Vihar and dumped garbage there.

On Sunday, hundreds of AAP activists took to the streets and cleaned up garbage in many parts of the capital.

The three municipal corporations, controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have accused the AAP government of not paying money to the civic bodies, leading to the present financial crisis.

The AAP government has denied the allegations, saying non-payment of salaries was the result of poor governance in the municipal bodies.

The employees of three civic corporations have been on strike since January 27, demanding payment of salaries and pending wages.