Police ‘Forcibly Remove’ Striking MCD Mosquito Breeding Checkers
The indefinite strike of the DBCs continued on Wednesday. Image Courtesy - Special Arrangement
Around a dozen workers out of the hundreds of striking employees of New Delhi’s three municipal corporations who check mosquito breeding were “forcibly removed” from the MCD’s Civic Centre office in the national capital by the police. Led by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)-backed Anti-Malaria Ekta Karamchari Union (AMEKU), the employees went on an indefinite hunger strike on Monday demanding immediate job regularisation.
On Tuesday, “around 10-12” striking employees who were set to spend the night at the protest site were “forcibly removed” by the Delhi Police, Devanand Sharma, president, AMEKU, told Newsclick on Wednesday.
“The police told us that permission to hold a protest outside the Civic Centre has been rejected,” Sharma alleged adding that negotiations between MCD and the union delegation on Wednesday morning failed. “They told us that regularisation will be considered after one month. However, it is nothing but a false assurance. The indefinite strike will continue.”
There are 3,500 domestic breeding checkers (DBC) employed on a contractual basis by the three municipal corporations—North, South and East. According to the union, several of the employees have been working as DBC for the last 26 years. The MCD promised job regularisation to the workers in writing in 2017 following an indefinite strike, the AMEKU claimed. Newsclick has earlier reported how the AMEKU submitted a memorandum of demands to the corporation officials last year.
“The Delhi Police has denied permission to hold the demonstration outside the Civic Centre at night for now,” Anurag Saxena, general secretary, CITU’s Delhi unit, told Newsclick. The union doesn’t hold “any grievances” against the Delhi Police, he added. “The strike has been called to put pressure on municipal officials to regularise the posts of DBCs immediately.”
The latest strike of DBC workers has come at a time when New Delhi is set for elections to the 272 wards in the three municipal corporations in April.
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