The Delhi Police on Friday arrested more than 120 councillors of the Bharatiya Janata Party from outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s home, where they were protesting against civic workers’ unpaid salaries. The councillors of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, where the BJP holds a majority, were demanding that the government release funds to pay the sanitation workers who have been on a week-long strike, IANS reported.

Senior BJP councillor Subhash Arya led the group, which demanded that the government must release funds for the civic body in accordance with the Fourth Delhi Finance Commission. The MCD has blamed the Delhi government for lack of funds in their budget to pay its workers. It said the Kejriwal administration had failed to finalise relevant clauses in the commission, which would have boosted the otherwise cash-strapped municipal corporation, according to the IANS report.

The arrested councillors were taken to Delhi’s Maurice Nagar and Civil Lines police stations. The police had to use force to remove the councillors from outside Kejriwal’s house.

The National Green Tribunal had issued notices to both the central and Delhi governments on Tuesday, as well as to the Sanitation Workers’ Union over the ongoing strike. The NGT had ordered the Delhi government on Thursday to pay East Delhi Municipal Corporation workers their dues without any further “delay or default”.

As garbage piles up in the Capital and the strike continues, political parties are keeping up their blame game. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari asked Kejriwal to announce a special package for civic workers, while Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the only solution to this long-standing problem was a change of power in the MCD.

General Secretary of the United Front of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi Employees Rajendra Mewati had said: “The situation [disruption in pay] has been the same for the past two years. Unless the corporation clears our pay, we will not resume work.”