New Delhi, June 12 (IANS): The Congress on Friday said it was due to the "intervention" of its vice president Rahul Gandhi that Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung was forced to release money to pay salaries of striking sanitation workers.

"Rahul Gandhi has explicitly said Delhi's safai karamcharis (sanitation workers) keep the city clean and they are like soldiers of an army," Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said at a press conference here.

It was due to Gandhi's intervention that Jung was forced to assure the release money to the MCD, he said.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi met employees of two Delhi municipal corporations who had struck work to protest against non-payment of salaries for the last three months.

Gandhi met the protesting workers at East Delhi Municipal Corporation headquarters at Patparganj here.

Delhi Congress Committee president Ajay Maken also accompanied the party vice president during his interaction with the striking staff.

Jung ordered the release of Rs.493 crore to the municipal corporations in the national capital to facilitate payment of salaries to sanitation workers who have not been paid for the past two months.

Ajoy Kumar said: "Now that there is so much garbage on streets, the 'Swachh Bharat Mission' of the prime minister and the broom symbol of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are not to be seen anywhere."