East Delhi civic body to pay pending salaries, Diwali bonus

EDMC COMMISSIONER RANBIR SINGH SAID THE CIVIC AGENCY IS EXPECTING TO GET ₹100 CRORE FROM DELHI GOVERNMENT, WHICH WILL BE UTILISED FOR PAYING SALARIES

NEW DELHI: To prevent a rerun of sanitation crisis that threatened to cripple parts of Delhi in January this year, the cash-strapped East Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to pay its employees pending salaries and give them a bonus before Diwali.

The civic agency has been run- ning under massive budgetary deficit and has survived on support from the Delhi government and the Centre ever since the Municipal Corporation of Delhi was trifurcated in 2012. The corporation has not been able to pay regular salary to staff resulting in five strikes by sanitation workers in last three years.

This January, more than 16,000 workers had again threat- ened to go on an indefinite strike over non-payment of salaries. But it was called off after 11 days as the Delhi government released funds to pay workers.

On Wednesday, EDMC mayor Neema Bhagat said the latest decision will benefit 26,000 workers who have not received salaries for up to two months.

“The group A, B and C employees haven’t been paid salaries since August, while those in group D (including sanitation workers) failed to get September’s salary and bonus. We will try to clear these dues before festival,” said Bhagat. EDMC commissioner Ranbir Singh said the civic agency is expecting to get ₹100 crore from Delhi government, which will be utilised for paying salaries.

“We have asked the govern- ment to deduct the amount from the quarterly grant issued as per the Third Delhi Finance Commission recommendations. We have already generated some funds through revenue and the additional ₹100 crore will help us to distribute salaries,” said Singh.

When contacted, Delhi government spokesperson Nagender Sharma said he was not aware of the matter yet.