MCD Employees Allege Group A, B Staff not Paid Since December

New Delhi: Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) employees have alleged that salaries of group A and B employees and teachers of 10 government-aided schoolshave not been disbursed as claimed by MCD commissioner Gyanesh Bharti in the Delhi High Court (HC).

Following the HC’s order regarding non-payment of salaries and pensions of MCD employees, Bhartiinformed the court on February 2 that they had been paid till December.

A member of the Confederation of MCD Employees Uniontold Newsclick over the phone that that there is a “huge chunk of staff that has not been paid” December’s salary. 

“The MCD commissioner’s statement in the High Court is partially accurate. The salaries for December have not been paid to group A and B staff,” the union member said requesting anonymity. Besides, staff of 10 MCD-aided schools have not been paid since September 2022, he alleged.

MCD additional deputy commissioner Amit Kumar accepted that salaries are still pending and the government is still in the process of transferring them to employees’ accounts. 

“Zones and headquarters are in the process of transferring salaries to employees’ accounts. The headquarters processed one batch of salaries today,” he told Newsclick.

Aarti Sharma, who teaches at a government-aided school, questioned the competency of the corporation and the government.

“Our files are being transferred from one department to another. The staff of 10-aided schools have not received their salaries since September. We are tired of asking for our dues. On the other hand, the government doesn’t seem to be bothered by the crisis we have been facing for the last seventoeight years,” she told Newsclick.

Kumar said that salaries of teachers would be released on raising demands from the concerned zones.

Meanwhile, the Delhi mayoral election tussle continues with the MCD House failing to elect a mayor for the third time on February 6 after January 6 and January 24. It has been two months since the AAPwon the MCD election. 

The AAP and the BJP are in a tussle over several issues. The most important is the selection of 10 aldermen, all from the BJP, by lieutenant governor VK Saxena. The AAP has called their selection and giving of voting rights to the aldermen a violation of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.

The AAP has contended that the alderman are supposed to be experts in various fields and should belong to it given that the party governs Delhi. The AAP moved the Supreme Court alleging deliberate stalling of the mayoral election. Subsequently, the apex court said that the Constitution does not allow nominated members of a municipality the right to vote in meetings, issued notice to Saxena and MCD’s protem presiding officer and listed AAP’s petition for detailed hearing on February 13.

The AAP has also challenged the decision to conduct simultaneous elections for the post of mayor, deputy mayor and six committee members in the top court. 

Without a mayor, the MCD will be unable to take major decisions on salary and pension payment and fund allocations, among others.

This is not the first time that a political battle for controlling the MCD by the two parties has impacted its functioning. The AAP and the BJP have been at loggerheads over revenue, hospital duesand transfer of officials several times. The major dispute in the last eight years has been over the transfer of Central funds to the corporation.

According to MCD employees, most protests and strikes over delayed payments were held in the last seven to eight years, which resulted in the unification of the MCD from three civic bodies to one last May. 

As perreports,the goal of the unification was to streamline the corporation’s functioning, distribute resources equally, and address income and expense issues.Of the three bodies, only the South MCD was financially viable, according to reports.

However, it’s been more than nine months since the unification but the problems persist, alleged Confederation convener AP Khan. 

“When the government decided to unify the MCD, wethought that it would solve the problems of employees. But we were wrong. The promised bailout package to help MCD to get rid of its debt has not been received yet. Considering what’s happening in the House, it’s clear that these parties are neither serious about the corporation nor employees,” Khan told Newsclick.

The union has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressing that the AAP-BJP tussle will cost a lot to the national capitalas it hosts the G20 summit in September, he added.

“Thirty cases of salary release and pensions, and contempt filed by MCD employees are in court,” Khan said.