Amritsar MC employees suspend work, seek provident fund arrears

Amritsar civic body has failed to clear provident fund amounting to over ₹39 crore to its 4,500 employees since 2015

The employees of Amritsar Municipal Corporation (MC), under the banner of Sanjhi Sangharsh Committee, on Monday staged a protest against the state government demanding release of pending provident fund (PF) arrears, amounting to over ₹39 crore.

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Over 300 employees gathered outside the MC office at 11am and raised slogans against the state government, mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu and MC commissioner Komal Mittal for failing to resolve the PF embezzlement scam that rocked MC’s accounts department in 2017.

Amritsar civic body has failed to deposit provident fund (PF) of its 4,500 employees since 2015. The problem only worsened after the PF embezzlement scam.

It is worth mentioning that ₹1.21 crore was misappropriated through 26 transactions in Amritsar MC’s provident fund account from 2015-17.

Sanjhi Sangharsh committee president Harjinder Singh Walia said, “Principal PF amount of ₹39crore must have doubled by now. MC has to pay at least ₹80,000 each to its staff.”

He said the directorate of local bodies’ ministry in August 2019 had ordered the officials to immediately release the arrears, however, the MC has been delaying it citing fund crunch.

The civic body is also yet to release two months salaries amounting to ₹13 crore to its employees.

“We will again suspend work on Tuesday.We demand that the MC not only clears the pending PF arrears but should also recover the embezzled ₹1.21 crore,” said Walia.