Worker takes cue from AAP rally tragedy, climbs tree to protest

A near rerun of farmer Gajendra Singh’s suicide unfolded during a protest by temporary sanitation workers of the East Corporation on Tuesday, when a protester climbed a tree and started making a noose with a scarf. He fell, injuring himself.

East Delhi Municipal Corporation sources said the man, a substitute sanitation worker, had in the past too threatened a couple of times to commit suicide. Substitute sanitation workers fill in for safai karamcharis who are on leave.

A group of sanitation workers were staging a demonstration demanding regularisation of jobs outside the Shahdara (South) Zonal office in Karkardooma on Tuesday afternoon. 

Within no time one man climbed a tree and started tying one end of his ‘gamcha’ around a branch. There was panic as civic workers rushed to the spot to bring him down.

The worker, agitating against irregular employment in the civic agency, did not manage to finish his act and fell from the tree, injuring himself. He was then rushed to hospital. East Corporation sources confirmed the incident but no details were officially given out.

“It has been found that his services were not required by the civic agency for over a decade,” a source said.

The man was staging a protest demanding work. “He fell from the tree accidentally and was immediately taken to Dr Hedgewar Hospital from where he was referred to GTB for a CT scan,” an official said.

“He is not seriously injured,” he added.Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajasthan, ended his life at a rally by the Aam Aadmi Party at Jantar Mantar on April 22 in protest against the Land Acquisition Bill.