Congress demands DTC's contract employees be regularised

Congress on Friday apprised Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung of the condition of the contractual employees of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and demanded the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government to immediately regularise their services.

"Kejriwal had promised to regularise the contractual employees working with the Delhi government and also with the DTC during the Aam Aadmi Party's election campaign, but has not fulfilled his promise though being in power for the past 18 months," Delhi Congress unit chief Ajay Maken told reporters after meeting Jung.

"The DTC, being an autonomous body, can on its own also regularise the contract employees," he added.

Maken claimed that the DTC "is in a bad plight now, as the AAP government has neither been doing anything for the welfare of the DTC employees, nor addressing the pressing problems of the workers".

Attacking Kejriwal, he said his government and the BJP-led Union government "have been busy clashing with each other, leaving no time for them to tackle important issues".

He also accused Kejriwal and his ministers for touring to fulfill their political agenda.

The Congress leader also said that the DTC has not yet implemented the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission for serving and retired employees of the DTC, though the DTC has always implemented the Central pay scale.

Also highlighting the problems of the DTC buses conductors, he said: "The DTC conductors are facing a serious problem due to the faulty ticket-vending machines given to them.

"These machines print blank tickets, and the conductors have to reimburse for the blank tickets from their own pockets," he alleged.

Taking a dig at the Delhi government for the shoratage of buses, he said: "It may be recalled that when the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in Delhi, the DTC had a fleet of around 5,000 buses which has now come down to 4,000 buses."

"Instead of increasing the number of buses, the DTC now faces shortage of 1,000 buses," he alleged.

Maken urged the Delhi government to replenish the depleted bus fleets without further delay as the shortage of buses have affected public transport in the city.

--IANS

aks/vd