Delhi L-G seeks inquiry into non-payment of bills to over 1,000 sanitation workers

The Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Thursday directed the Chief Secretary (CS) to look into a complaint citing non-payment of bills to the tune of Rs 16 crore by the Delhi government to over 1,000 Dalit workers engaged in cleaning of sewer lines in the national capital and said that this was a “serious matter”.

Expressing displeasure over this unjustified, inordinate delay in payments, the L-G said that this was a “serious matter” and asked the CS to take immediate steps to clear all “genuine claims” of these sanitation workers before Diwali so that these marginalized workers do not face any hardship during the festivals.

The Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) raised a complaint against the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on this matter.

The L-G’s directions came in the wake of a representation made by DICCI, led by its chairman Milind Kamble, who complained about the apathy of these workers. On February 28, 2019, the DJB signed an agreement with DICCI to implement a technology-based solution for sewer cleaning to eliminate manual scavenging in Delhi, under which 189 contractors from marginalized communities were engaged by DJB for cleaning of the sewer lines. These contractors have engaged over 1,000 sanitation workers who are responsible for cleaning of sewers in the DJB areas.

Also, to implement the project, these contractors purchased sewer cleaning machines with loan assistance under the Stand-up India scheme, a flagship scheme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which aims at supporting the poor and the marginalized to become self-reliant.

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The State Bank of India (SBI) extended the term loan up to 90 per cent of the project cost, i.e. Rs 40 lakh for each machine and the remaining 10 per cent of the margin money was brought in by the Dalit entrepreneurs. Thus, the EMI payment to the bank forms the major expenditure every month apart from the recurring operation and maintenance expenses of these machines.

However, due to non-payment of bills by the Delhi government, these Dalit workers have been forced to go without salary for several months and the contractors are unable to meet the critical recurring expenses like the fuel, operation and maintenance and repayment of bank EMIs.

DICCI Chairman Kamble, while meeting the L-G, alleged that these Dalit contractors and workers are in the 4th year of their service with the DJB, but ever since they have been facing an acute crisis. He alleged that a lobby active in the DJB was constantly trying to fail these poor Dalit sanitation workers so that the sewer cleaning work again goes back to the old contractors.

According to the complaint, the contract between DJB and DICCI, stipulates the release of payment to the contractors every month but never in these 4 years, have timely payments been made to these workers. These contractors faced the worst crisis during the Covid-19 lockdown when the Delhi government did not release their payments for several months even as their entire fleet of sewer cleaning machines was engaged by the government for special sanitation drive across the city, causing hardships to these Dalit frontline workers, the complaint read.