With Lok Sabha elections approaching, the BJP-ruled South Corporation Thursday announced sops to woo sanitation workers, who constitute over 70% of the civic body’s workforce. SDMC’s standing committee chairperson Shikha Rai proposed waiving house tax on one residential property of its regular sanitation employees. South MCD has 12,000 permanent and 8,500 temporary workers.“Sanitation employees play the most important role in keeping our neighbourhoods clean and their contribution cannot be forgotten, so I announce waiving the tax on their one residential property,” she said. Terming the move “election jumla”, leader of opposition, AAP’s Pravin Kumar, said, “Most of the sanitation employees live in unauthorised colonies or JJ clusters and they anyway do not pay taxes.” “What they need is salary on time, regularisation of jobs of temporary workers, cashless medical card, masks, uniforms and other safety gear. But these demands have been ignored for a long time,” he said. Rajesh Beniwal, president of the Delhi Pradesh All India Safai Majdoor Congress, echoed Kumar’s view: “I hardly know any sanitation workers who live in regular colonies and pay house tax. If they are so concerned about us, they should have given cashless card or rebate on income tax or financial assistance in purchasing a house.”
