All is not well with the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) as it has failed to pay salaries to its employees for the last three months. The VMC finances went for a toss after it began implementing projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
The VMC requires not less than Rs. 12 crore per month for salaries and wages and it needs Rs. 36 crore to clear the pending dues. The Corporation, however, has only Rs. 5 crore to Rs. 6 crore in its bank accounts, sources say.
The Corporation’s finances have gone into a state of disarray during the last few months for various reasons. The Corporation requires Rs.15 crore a month to meet the operational and maintenance costs, including payment of salaries, wages of workers and payment of electricity bills.
The salaries of permanent employees would be around Rs. 5.50 crore per month while the contract employees’ would be in the range of Rs. 75 lakh to Rs. 1 crore per month. The DWCUA workers’ salaries would be close to Rs. 2 crore while the pensioners would have to be paid Rs 1.50 crore per month, sources say.
As many as 3,226 people are engaged in sanitation works in the city. Barring 1,000 permanent workers, the sanitary workers are drawn from DWCUA and CMEY groups. There are about 700 ministerial and class-IV staff and more than 400 contract and 1,150 permanent employees. The corporation has to earmark Rs. 50 crore per annum for salaries.
The VMC paid salaries of January month just a week ago to sanitary workers. Later, the ministerial staff and other permanent employees were paid. The pensioners, however, received their pensions up to March.
The employees staged protest demanding payment of salaries through treasury and also in time in 2009. The VMC higher-ups then asserted that there were no financial constraints in paying salaries by fifth of every month. However, the situation did not improve much to the agony of employees, and the VMC is unable to pay the salaries as assured.
The Corporation finances are in the red after it began implementing projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). It is unable to pay the salaries in time for the last three years.
