The official also said there cannot be overnight changes unless the corporation increases house tax: “But there are no plans to increase it as of now as it will face too much resistance.”(Express file photo)It has been one month since the unification of the MCD but salary issues continue to persist. This has also hampered the corporation’s efforts at an image makeover following the merger.
The MCD now employs around 1.20 lakh people – including sanitation workers, health staff, teachers and clerical staff – and salaries of most employees have been delayed for two-five months. Those hoping for relief post the unification say nothing has happened so far.
Indumati Jamwal, head of the Nurses’ Welfare Association at Hindu Rao hospital, said salary has been delayed for three months for nurses and paramedical staff. “We have intimated authorities, but it is the same old story… even after the merger we do not see any relief,” she said.
Upset by the delay, the teachers’ union has written a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah. “Even after the integration of all three corporations in Delhi, teachers are feeling helpless and cheated due to non-payment of salaries… The integration… was a commendable step but there has been no improvement in the pathetic condition of teachers due to no improvement in the financial condition of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi,” wrote Nagar Nigam Shikshak Sangh general-secretary Ramnivas Solanki in the letter.
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Five months’ salary is due for 4,200 teachers of the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation, salary of two months is due to 7,000 teachers under the erstwhile North MCD, while a month’s salary has not been paid to 5,000 teachers of the erstwhile South MCD. Arrears are outstanding and pensioners’ benefits have not been paid for the last five months, the letter stated. The union has said it would again resort to a strike if conditions do not improve.
On the delays, a senior official said the MCD had recently paid a month’s salary using its internal revenue and it is yet to get the complete share of funds from the Delhi government. “Revenue augmentation measures are being taken and it will show its result in coming months,” he said.
The official also said there cannot be overnight changes unless the corporation increases house tax: “But there are no plans to increase it as of now as it will face too much resistance.”
Former leader of the opposition in the North MCD and AAP leader Vikas Goel said the MCD should not make excuses now: “They have delayed polls saying that the merger will solve all problems, so now they should give results as well.”
He added: “They have said that the government means Central Government in the (MCD) Bill… Why then did the Centre not issue a special package and bail out the corporation? Because it (merger) was all done just to stop polls.”
The MCD Bill states that in at least 11 sections of The Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, the words “Central Government” shall replace “Government”, wherever it occurs.
The unified MCD formally came into existence on May 22, with Ashwani Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti assuming charge as the unified civic body’s special officer and commissioner respectively.
The MCD was trifurcated into the North, South and East bodies in 2012 during Congress leader Sheila Dikshit’s tenure as the chief minister. The aim was to decentralise governance. But the North and East civic bodies came under financial strain as there was an unequal division of resources between them and the cash-rich South MCD. Unification was mooted to solved the financial crisis.
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