Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Sunday that the Delhi government had released ₹119 crore to the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), two days after its sanitation workers launched a strike over delay in salaries.
Levelling corruption charges against the EDMC, Mr. Sisodia urged the civic body to use the money to hand out the pending salaries. The Deputy Chief Minister also announced that the advance sum of ₹119 crore, which would be transferred to the corporation on Monday morning, was meant to be released once the revised estimates were approved a month later. The government, however, decided to clear it in advance given the non-payment of salaries. “The EDMC received ₹399 crore in 2012-2013, ₹416 crore in 2013-2014 and ₹441 crore in 2014-2015 from the Delhi government. We increased the amount to ₹702 crore in 2015-2016 and have already released ₹609 crore in this financial year [2016-2017],” said Mr. Sisodia.
‘Financial mismanagement’
“Why are employees not being paid despite an increase in funds? If they were managing in ₹300-400 crore earlier, how is it possible that they are not able to do so in ₹700 crore?” said the Deputy Chief Minister, who also holds the Finance portfolio.
More than 25,000 municipal employees, including 17,000 sanitation workers of the EDMC, went on a strike last week over non-payment of salaries. The sanitation workers, who have gone on strike several times over the past two years, held a protest outside Mr. Sisodia’s office and the EDMC headquarters in Patparganj.
Mr. Sisodia also alleged that “the civic bodies had become centres of financial mismanagement and functional indiscipline”. The civic bodies, he added, had committed contempt of court by disobeying a High Court order that issued directions about payment of salaries to all employees by the 7th of every month. “It is criminal negligence on the EDMC’s part for not paying salaries to sanitation workers and causing inconvenience to residents by not maintaining cleanliness,” he said.
The condition in east Delhi, meanwhile, has worsened with garbage being dumped in the open. “We are yet to be paid salaries for October, November and December. We will continue with the strike till our demands our met,” said Sanjay Gehlot, president of the Delhi unit of the MCD Swachhata Karmchari Union.
“If our demands are not met, we will take a sterner stand from Monday,” said Mr. Gehlot. (With PTI inputs)
