Delhi civic body goes into damage control mode

Blames bank for delay in payment of salary to worker

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation went into damage control mode on Monday and sent officials to meet Dharmender Kumar, a domestic breeding checker, who allegedly attempted suicide on Friday as he had not been paid his salary for four months by the civic body.

“Some MCD officials visited me in the hospital and told me that my salary for two months has been credited into my bank account,” said Mr. Kumar, adding that they blamed the delay in payment on the bank in which he has an account. “I will only know if it has actually been credited once I visit the bank,” he added.

Mr. Kumar’s wife Sudesh said: “The officials came here stating that we could work out some solution. They told my husband that two months salary has been given to him. We told them we just want the salary to be regular and not get stuck for months.”

On Monday,

The Hindu had reported that Mr. Kumar had consumed insecticide after a visit to the bank on Friday revealed that he had not received his salary amount for even the previous month’s work - bringing the lag in salary payments to four months.

Mentioning the incident at a press conference on Monday, North Delhi Mayor Mira Aggarwal countered the allegations and said that the civic body has records to show otherwise. “We have records to show that he has received salary for three months and only for the fourth month he has not received due to some technical problems with the bank in which he has an account,” she said.

Despite members of the Anti-Malaria Karamchari Sangh claiming that not a single DBC worker has received salary since July this year, the Mayor read out details of Mr. Kumar’s salary payments showing the salary period, the amount and date on which the salary was processed via the electronic clearance system.