‘Are you there just for salary?’: Delhi HC slams civic staff on dengue cases

The bench said, “There is so much dengue. You are doing nothing. You only want salaries. What do you do with these salaries and amounts? On the ground, is there something happening?”

The Delhi high court on Tuesday pulled up the civic authorities for the surge in cases of dengue in the city, saying that all its earlier orders on the functioning of the municipal employees have “fallen on deaf ears”.

The city has reported 7,128 dengue cases so far, and nine deaths, according to the weekly data. (Picture for representation only/HT)

A bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh, hearing a plea by South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) against Delhi government’s decision seeking retrospective recovery of grants-in-aid from municipal bodies, said that the civic body employees should not ask for salaries if they do not discharge their duties.

The bench said, “There is so much dengue. You are doing nothing. You only want salaries. What do you do with these salaries and amounts? On the ground, is there something happening?”

“How can it be that dengue is increasing every year? Is it not a municipal function? We are in pain to understand what is happening? Is it some rocket science that after monsoon there will be mosquitoes, dengue? It’s a pattern for the last 15 to 20 years,” the bench said, pulling up the SDMC counsel.

Delhi added over 1,800 dengue cases during the week ending on November 20, taking this year’s tally past the 7,000-mark, according to the weekly report released by the city’s municipal corporations on Monday.

The city has reported 7,128 dengue cases so far, and nine deaths, according to the weekly data.

The court noted that the corporations are not “understaffed” and rather “have excess employees”.

“Is it that the municipality has given up everything and it’s only to collect taxes and disburse salaries? How do they expect salaries if they don’t do work... Obviously your mosquito checkers, breeders are doing nothing. They are not going to the ground. Probably they are just marking their attendance and you are paying them...,” bench observed.

The court said that it has been “extremely patient”, noting that it ensured salaries are paid every time the issue came up. “But it can’t be that there is no work happening and it’s only salaries,” the bench said.

The court asked the chairpersons of the three civic bodies to hold a joint meeting and apprise it about the steps being taken to control mosquito breeding.

The court clarified that it would not exercise its discretionary jurisdiction in favour of the petitioner corporation and its employees if “the (dengue)situation on the ground does not improve”.

The court also noted that it had earlier raised the issue of geo-tagging and marking of biometric attendance of employees. “We direct the petitioner to place on record what steps have been taken in this regard. This information should be provided in the affidavit to be filed,” the bench said.

The matter would be heard on December 1.

A senior official of South Delhi Municipal Corporation official, which is the nodal agency for vector borne disease data collection, said the matter is sub-judice, and that all the directions of the court will be followed.