Najeeb Jung: It’s emergency-like situation

In a significant development, Delhi lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung has reportedly said that the national capital was facing an “Emergency-like situation” in the wake of the ongoing strike by the employees of the three municipal corporations protesting against the non-payment of their salaries and other perks.

In a letter to deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, the lieutenant-governor is learnt to have said that the week-long strike by the BJP-led corporation employees could further worsen the situation and lead to a law and order problem in the city. Mr Jung has reportedly said that the Delhi government on humanitarian grounds should help the three municipal bodies to overcome financial crisis.

Mr Jung is said to have suggested that the Delhi government could provide conditional loans to the three municipal bodies so that they could pay salaries and perks to their employees. He has reportedly said that the AAP administration, like the previous governments, could provide the conditional loans to end the ongoing crisis.

Mr Jung’s letter to resolve the ongoing strike came after he met a group of sanitation workers at Raj Nivas on Monday. This is the first occasion when the lieutenant-governor has written to the AAP government on the salary issue seeking its resolution. Earlier, the AAP government had passed a resolution requesting Mr Jung to direct the DDA to pay Rs 1,575 crore dues to the municipal corporations to help them pay salaries to their employees.

The tussle-between the BJP-led municipal corporations and the AAP government has come out open on the streets with civic employees dumping garbage on open roads and outside the residences of the city ministers. Since the municipal employees are not collecting garbage due to the ongoing strike, the city government has directed the employees of the PWD to remove garbage across the national capital.

The ongoing strike has also led to another political row between the BJP-led corporations and the AAP government over non-payment of salaries and perks to the civic employees.

The BJP has been blaming the AAP government for not releasing funds to the corporations, the city administration has been claiming that it has already given all the money to the civic bodies. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had even demanded dissolution of the three municipal bodies for turning into a den of corruption and their total failure to meet their own expenses.