Will regularise temporary employees wherever AAP comes to power: Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: A day after approving the proposal to regularise the jobs of 5,000 MCD workers, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said it will regularise temporary employees wherever it comes to power.

Addressing a press conference here, regarding the permanent employment of MCD's sanitation workers, Kejriwal said, "MCD house's meeting commenced on Tuesday. In that meeting, a proposal was passed to make approximately 5,000 sanitation workers of the MCD permanent employees."

He said that the AAP came to power in the MCD in January this year and since then, we have made around 6,494 sanitation workers permanent.

The AAP national convenor said that the employment of sanitation workers is often uncertain as they may be called to work today, but there's no guarantee if they shall be called next day.

He said that they don't know if they will work for 15 days or 20 days in a month. Many sanitation workers have not received their full salaries, he said, adding that so far sanitation workers have been subjected to various forms of exploitation.

Slamming the BJP, Kejriwal said, "For the past 15 years, the BJP's government was in power in the MCD. They didn't spare sanitation workers from exploitation. Sanitation workers consistently demanded to be made permanent employees, a process that the AAP government has pushed forward."

"We had promised that we would make all sanitation workers permanent. Since this announcement, sanitation workers are very happy," he said.

He also pointed out that AAP's government has been in power in Punjab for only one and half years.

"Within this short period, we have regularised approximately 30,000 non-permanent employees. This demonstrates the commitment of the AAP. Non-permanent employees have been subjected to exploitation. Whenever we get an opportunity in any government, we will regularise non-permanent employees and gradually end the non-permanent sanitation employment system," Kejriwal announced.

The Chief Minister also pointed out that since the AAP has come to power in the MCD, good news has been coming from there as earlier there were reports of corruption and delayed salaries.

"When the BJP was in power in the MCD, corruption was rampant. In addition, there were reports of all MCD employees not receiving their salaries for three to four months. Sanitation workers were often seen protesting and going on strikes demanding their salaries. Since the AAP has come to power in the MCD, we have controlled many wrongdoings, and for the past 3-4 months, all MCD employees have started receiving their salaries on time," Kejriwal highlighted.

He further said that along with this, the process of making sanitation workers permanent has also begun.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House on October 31 approved a proposal to regularise 5,000 sanitisation workers and promote 3,100 domestic breeding checkers to Multi-Tasking Staff.