delhi

Updated: Feb 05, 2016 23:47 IST

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday offered a Rs 300-crore loan to the capital’s civic bodies, asking them to end their strike.

The Aam Aadmi Party earlier urged Jung to look into the situation arising out of the ongoing strike, party leader Somnath Bharti said.

Employees of North Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation and East Delhi Municipal Corporation have been protesting the non-payment of their salaries and wages over the past few months.

They have directed their ire at both the Delhi and central governments and have remained on strike since the past 10 days, adversely affecting the city’s schools, hospitals and sanitation services.

Jung met the mayors of the corporations and the representatives of the employee unions at his residence. “Delhi government had released an amount of Rs 693 crores to the corporations. The additional Rs 300 crores would take the amount given to north and east corporation to a total of Rs. 1,000 crore. The amount of Rs 1,000 crore will take care of the salaries of all employees/officials till 31st March 2016,” said the statement from the LG’s office said.

An AAP delegation of legislators Alka Lamba, Vishesh Ravi, Nitin Tyagi, Kartar Singh Tanwar and Anil Bajpai met Jung in New Delhi and handed over a memorandum about the raging issues in the civic bodies.

“We have given a memorandum (to the lt. governor) and it summarises the issues which we have raised before him,” Bharti said.

The Delhi government has already paid all the dues to the municipal bodies but the amount meant for salaries has been diverted or misused, the memorandum said, adding that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) owed Rs 1,555 crore cumulatively to the three civic bodies and the amount, if released, will take care of the salaries of a majority of the staff.

“We expect him (Jung) to come (down) heavily on the MCD to fix this issue. We are waiting for his reaction and the moment the strike gets resolved, we will believe that he has done something,” he added.