EDMC teachers announce strike
NEW DELHI: The municipal teachers’ union has called for a joint strike from Monday to protest against the delay in salary disbursement, noting that the pendency has touched five months for teachers and seven months for pensioners in East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) schools.
A majority of the employees in EDMC were last paid for the month of November in 2021, making it the second longest period of salary pendency observed since trifurcation of the civic bodies.
Ramniwas Solanki, who heads Nagar Nigam Shikshak Sangh -- a teachers’ union of all three MCDS, said the situation is becoming unbearable for many families. “There is five months pendency in East MCD and two months in North MCD. The situation is dire for thousands of families as employees are unable to pay their house rents, loans and school fee of their wards, on top of which banks are imposing penalties... We have called for a strike and joint protest at EDMC headquarter on May 9, 2022 (Monday),”said Solanki.
The teachers’ union has also written to the Union home ministry to intervene and provide a financial package for the upcoming unification of the MCDS.
Vibha Singh, principal of Gandhi Nagar municipal school, said the corporation keeps issuing circulars about sanitation measures and other directives but it does not issue any funds for it.
“During the entire pandemic we were sending worksheets to students and even the photocopies were made with personal funds. Situation has never been this bad...,” she said.
The Nagar Nigam Shikshak Sangh in a statement said that other employee unions have also supported their call to protest.
AP Khan, convener of the Confederation of MCD employees unions, said that they support the protest call made by teachers. “It will be their platform but we will support the call... There has been no development after notification of MCD unification bill. If financial support is not provided, it will prove that the merger was done for political gains,” he added. EDMC mayor Shyam Sunder Aggarwal admitted there is a salary delay but added that the corporation is working to sort out the issues. “We have still not received the first quarter of basic tax assignment share from the government. This is why unification is being carried out. As soon as we get the first quarter share, we will be able to release salaries for two months. We hope that the salary delay crisis will soon be permanently resolved after unification,” he added.
The President has already signed into law the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which seeks to unify the three civic bodies. The unification is expected to be initiated near the end of current terms of the three MCDS, between May 18-22, with the appointment of a special officer.