The municipal workers' strike entered the fourth day on Saturday with garbage piling in the city. (AP File Photo)
Hundreds of BJP workers today joined the strike by sanitation workers of municipal corporations of Delhi while the Arvind Kejriwal government announced a task force to lift the waste piling in parts of the city and deployed PWD workers to do the job.
AAP, which runs the government, and the BJP, which heads the civic bodies on strike, continued to blame each for the crisis.
This is the fourth day of the strike by sanitation workers. "If need be all AAP MLAs and cabinet ministers will pick up brooms and take to the streets to clean up the garbage," Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra told NDTV. PWD workers are now cleaning up the city, he said.
BJP workers took out marches in different parts of the capital to protest against the government over the issue.
The AAP government will take the help of the volunteers of the Aam Aadmi Party to clear out the garbage, sources said. The government is also likely to launch a helpline for citizens to call in and inform the authorities about accumulating garbage in their area.
"The BJP-led MCD is not capable of clearing the garbage and we will not allow the heaps of garbage in Delhi...The BJP is trying to punish the people of Delhi," Mr Mishra said.
With the minister taking a dig at his party's rival, the BJP hit back at the AAP government accusing it of playing "party politics" in not releasing money to the corporations.
In an open letter to the Chief Minister on Friday, Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyaya had asked Mr Kejriwal to release Rs 3,000 crores to the three municipal corporations "as per recommendations of 3rd Delhi Finance Commission (DFC)."
Mr Mishra accused the BJP-led civic bodies of indulging in a 'salary scam' and not paying the sanitation workers despite Delhi government having released money for it. "(We) will make Delhi a clean city and people won't have to face the problem this time due to the strike by sanitation workers," he said. In October last year too, sanitation workers had gone on strike over non-payment of their salaries.