Jung offers civic bodies Rs.300 crore loan, seeks end to strike

Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday offered a loan of Rs.300 crore to two municipal corporations for payment of the salaries of its workers and urged the striking employees to end their strike.

The move came after a delegation of Aam Aadmi Party legislators met Jung and urged him to intervene in civic workers' strike.

"With a view to resolve the issue at hand and keeping in mind the difficulties being faced by the people of Delhi, LG made a unilateral offer of Rs. 300 crore loan to the North and East Delhi Municipal Corporation from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA)," said a statement from the lt. governor's office.

Jung met the mayors of the three municipal corporations and also the representatives of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi Employee Unions at Raj Niwas.

"Lt. governor appealed to the MCD Employee Unions to call off their strike and resume work in the interest of the city and the people of Delhi," the statement said.

The Delhi government has given Rs.551 crore to the North and East municipal corporations as loan for payment of salaries of workers

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation will also be paid Rs.142 crore against the stamp duty bill, and so the total amount released by the Delhi government to both the corporations is Rs. 693 crore.

"The additional Rs. 300 crore would take the amount given to the North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations to a total of approx Rs.1,000 crore. This amount will take care of the salaries of all employees/officials till March 31, 2016," the statement said.

The lt governor also assured the striking workers that he would speak to the Delhi government regarding the implementation of the fourth Finance Commission report to find a long term solution to the crisis.

Employees of Delhi's civic bodies have been protesting over the non-payment of salaries for the past few months, and directing their ire at both the Delhi and central governments for the last 10 days.

Earlier in the morning the striking workers had staged a protest outside Water Minister Kapil Mishra's home in Yamuna Vihar area of north Delhi.