EDMC agitation: Section of workers claim still on strike

A section of East Delhi Municipal Corporation sanitation workers "continued" with their strike today, even as civic officials said 1,800 metric ton of garbage was picked up, a day after EDMC had claimed that all unions had ended the agitation.
About 17,000 sanitation workers are employed with EDMC, out of which about 15,000 are employed full-time. The strike had left the trans-Yamuna region of the capital littered with dumps of garbage, from Laxmi Nagar to Patparganj.
"All our sanitation employees, except a section of workers have resumed duty and helped dispose off 1,800 metric ton of garbage today. About 58 trucks were deployed last night, 72 in the morning and 65 in the afternoon to clear the accumulated mess," a senior EDMC official said.

However, the MCD Swachhata Karmchari Union, affiliated to Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), said it is still on strike.
"Today we continued to be on strike and sanitation workers led by us piled up garbage in front of the camp office of Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel in protest. We want a permanent solution to this problem," president of the Union, Sanjay Gehlot said.
Meanwhile, the commissioners of the three civic bodies -- NDMC, SDMC and EDMC -- today met Delhi Chief Secretary M M Kutty to discuss the financial situation in the corporations, according to sources.

The EDMC officials had yesterday claimed that after a meeting with the Commissioner all the unions ended the strike.

The sanitation workers of EDMC had gone on strike on January 5 demanding payment of their due salaries and arrears.
The strike has again triggered a political blamegame ahead of the municipal polls, with AAP and BJP charging each another of creating the crisis.
Meanwhile, a senior official of the North Corporation today said, "The salaries of sanitation workers for the month of November and December has been released, while for other class IV employees the November salary has been released."
North and East Corporations are among the cash-stripped civic bodies in the capital city, and have faced intermittent agitation from sanitation workers in last couple of years.