Released Rs 8 crore to pay April salary of corporation doctors: Government to Delhi HC

NEW DELHI: The AAP government informed Delhi high court on Wednesday that it has released Rs 8 crore to North Delhi Municipal Corporation for payment of resident doctors’ salaries for April.
The government, however, maintained that payment of salaries of doctors and other employees of the corporation was the sole responsibility of the civic body and Delhi government only releases funds as per budget estimate of the financial year.
Meanwhile, the north civic body filed a status report saying that salaries of March and April of all resident doctors in hospitals run by it have been paid.But it said salaries of other employees is still pending as Delhi government has not released all the funds for the first quarter of this financial year.
It told a bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan that around Rs 162 crore was due to the corporation by Delhi government in the first quarter of financial year 2020-21 and of that only Rs 27 crore has been sanctioned which is “yet to be seen”.
The claim was disputed by additional solicitor general (ASG) Sanjay Jain, appearing for Delhi government, who said that in its report filed on Tuesday, July 7, the amounts released to the corporation by various departments have been indicated. Jain said that all dues have been cleared by the government.
In its report the government has said Rs 212.53 crore to north corporation and Rs 112.62 to South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has been already released, while its education department has also released Rs 147.50 crore to the north body, Rs 97.50 crore to SDMC and Rs 75 crore to east corporation as grant in aid for the current financial year.
Besides that, its revenue department has released Rs 33.65 crore to north corporation, Rs 48.02 crore to SDMC and Rs 11.40 crore for east corporation in the current financial year, Delhi government has said in its report.
HC then noted that when even lawyers are coming to court saying they want money during the pandemic, doctors, who are corona warriors, must be paid their salaries. The bench also made it clear that it was only dealing with the non-payment of salaries of the resident doctors of hospitals run by the corporation and not all of its doctors and other employees. It was hearing a PIL initiated by it based on news reports that doctors of Kasturba Gandhi Hospital have threatened to resign as they have not been paid salaries since March this year.