Madan Lal has been associated with the North Delhi Municipal Corporation for the last 20 years. In the last two decades, this daily breed checker (DBC) has seen the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) drifting towards the worst. But the last three months, with their salaries pending, have been a nightmare for him and hundreds of his colleagues working for the corporation.
“For the last five months, I have been working continuously, even on weekends. In return, what we get is just a ‘thank you’ and assurance. Will that buy us food?” says Lal. Lal and nearly 3,500 other DBCs associated with three civic bodies of the MCD — East, South and North — have been struggling to sustain their families and most have run out of whatever little savings they had.
The financial woes of the MCD seem to be a perpetual crisis and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP), which rules the civic bodies, have been in a never-ending tussle over delay in projects and non-release of funds. “We never said no to any work; never refused to go out and do our duty. But even during the pandemic, we have to wait for our salaries. Most of us had to take help from our relatives or friends.
From outside, many might think that our job is secured since we are ‘government employees’. But in reality, DBCs are not even permanent employees or have designations,” laments Lal, who hasn’t paid school fees his two sons since the nationwide lockdown was imposed in March. According to him, the trifurcation of the MCD into South, East and North corporations in 2012 is the prime reason of the fund crunch. “Before the trifurcation, we had never encountered any problem. But since 2012, we have been staging protests every year demanding our salaries on time,” the North MCD worker says.
‘Why do we wait for Delhi govt?’
With the announcement of the seventh pay commission, the financial burden on the MCDs along with the cost of development has increased. The budget estimate of the erstwhile unified corporation in 2011-12 was 16,991.59 crore. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) increased its budget for general administration to Rs 573.24 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 250.92 in 2012-13.
Last year, the Delhi government accepted key recommendations of the Fifth Delhi Finance Commission (DFC), which, among other things, it says, would ensure more cash flow to the fund-starved municipal corporations. Accepting more than half of the DFC’s recommendations, the government said it would give 12.5 per cent of its total tax collection to the city’s five civic bodies. The new format is effective from April 1, 2016, which means employees of the civic agencies would to get arrears too, the government had said.
The original mandate of the Third DFC was till 2011, but due to non-implementation of the recommendations of the 4th DFC, the Delhi government continued to allocate the funds as per the 3rd DFC. SDMC Mayor Anamika Mithilesh says it is against the norms of natural justice that even from the outlay of current financial year of Rs 439.60 crore, the Delhi government decided to allocate Rs 275.46 crore as it has implemented the recommendation of 5th DFC.
The mayor says the actual total receipts, includinga non-plan and plan from the Delhi government, has been fast receding for the last five years as it was Rs 1,628.09 crore in 2017-18, Rs 927.89 crore in 2018-19, Rs 741.44 crore in 2019-20. “Under the plan funds, the 5th DFC had recommended Rs 1,555.70 crore to the SDMC, but Delhi government allocated only Rs 617.70 crore and that, too, has not been released completely. In the current financial year, no fund has been allocated to the SDMC,” Mithilesh says.
The SDMC spends Rs 100 crore on dengue control every year, while the Delhi government provides Rs 36 crore. The SDMC makes Rs 25 crore annual expenditure on the salaries of DBC workers, while the Delhi government provides only Rs 8 crore. “Majboori insaan se bohut kuch karwata hai, hum bhi kar rahe hai. (Helpless situation forces a person to do a lot of things. I am also doing the same to survive). Looks like the authorities are accustomed to the situation.
Whenever we approach them for our salary, they give us the excuse that the Delhi government has not released funds yet. When we work for the MCD why should we beg the Delhi government for our salary,” asks Indraj Kaushik, an employee with the SDMC. He says the staff of the SDMC are still better off than the other two MCDs when it comes to getting salaries. “The workers under the North MCD are most-affected ones. We don’t compromise at all with work. Right from tackling the city pollution and waterlogging to controlling the vector-borne diseases and now, the Covid-19, we have given more than 100 per cent efforts. Yet, we are not paid on time,” Kaushik adds.
Trifurcation led to the trouble
Chairman of the Delhi Sanitation Worker Association (DSWA) Sanjay Gehlot, who has been working at the MCD for the last 25 years, notes that the issue of non-timely payment of salaries started emerging soon after the three civic bodies were formed. “Now, it’s entirely a political matter. The Delhi government is run by the AAP and the MCDs are by the BJP. And it’s the MCD workers or employees who suffer the most because of their tussle,” he says.
About 78,000 sanitation workers of the MCDs have been divided into three categories, of which around 50 per cent are permanent employees. While the third category receives a salary monthly of Rs 3000-4000, the second category, who are also daily wagers, get around Rs 15,000 per month. And the permanent ones draw around Rs 30,000-Rs 35,000 depending upon their seniority. “There are workers who have been with the MCD for more than 25 years without securing a permanent post, and the civic bodies have been taking this advantage by exploiting them. There are hundreds retired employees who have not received their pensions on the time for the past five years,” Gehlot adds.
When did the problem start?
KS Mehra, last mayor of the unified civic body, claims that paying the salary on time was never an issue with the Sheila Dikshit government. He says the problem began following MCD’s trifurcation.
“I was the mayor from 2008 to 2012. During that period, the staff never faced such a crisis. In fact, I had made it a point that they get salary on the first day of every month. I am not privy to what happened then. But it is because of no release of legit funds within time by the AAP led Delhi govt. It is delayed for some reasons,” Mehra said. However, Mehra insists that the civic bodies should not be relying solely on the state government for funds and rather, start looking for an alternative revenue generation.
How MCDs are dealing with the issue
Avtar Singh, who was the North MCD mayor from 2019-2020, alleges that the AAP government takes fund from the Centre on time, but it doesn’t pass on to the corporation immediately. “The AAP government deliberately does it to trouble us. Still, we pay the salaries out of the tax revenues,” he says. Mithilesh says the tax systems need to be improvised to meet the financial losses due to the lockdown and the SDMC is looking for alternative ways to increase its expenditures.
AAP-BJP blame game
Last week, the BJP and AAP staged a protest outside the Delhi Secretariat and Civic Centres respectively. While the BJP accused the government of delaying funds, the AAP has been constantly accusing the MCDs of corruption and misusing funds. Mithilesh says the current situation in the MCDs is only because of the Delhi government. AAP in-charge for the municipal corporations Durgesh Pathak said the BJP should stop misleading people and pay the salaries. “The AAP will run it in a better way in the same budget. It has been about six months since the employees have not got their salaries. Unless all the employees of the MCDs are paid, the party will continue to protest and raise its voice,” he said.
Talking about the High Court’s intervention into the matter, Singh says the government should be blamed for the delay in salary payments.
Delhi HC’s interventions
The Delhi High Court has been intervening in the payment of pending salaries of MCD workers time and again. Last month, the court asked the Delhi government and the North MCD to respond to a petition filed by the Hospital Employees Union of the civic body, seeking a direction for the immediate release of their pending salaries. Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Rajiv Agarwal contended that the authorities were not paying timely salaries to Group C and Group D employees even during the pandemic when their workload increased manifold and the staff became more vulnerable to the infection. The council said while Group C employees have not been paid for May, June and July, Group D employees have not got their dues for June & July.
MCD’s trifurcation has brought in its fair share of problems. The civic bodies haven’t paid salaries to hundreds of staff for months. They include doctors, teachers and sanitation workers. While BJP-run corporations blame AAP govt for the salary delay, govt accuses MCDs of corruption, reports Somrita Ghosh