Pension sent, then debited: Delhi civic body pins blame on bank

The issue of delayed pensions is not new. Despite repeated assurances made in the Delhi high court, the cash-strapped municipality continues to face salary-pension crisis with similar delays. The court has been hearing a bunch of pleas moved in 2020 over non-payment of salaries and pensions by MCD.

Pension amounts of thousands of retired staff members of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi were deducted from their bank accounts on Tuesday night, hours after being credited following a two-month delay — a lapse that the civic body attributed to “human error”.

More than more than 55,000 retired MCD employees have not received their pensions for the months of February and March. (Representational Image)

The corporation officials and its mayor Shelly Oberoi, however, later said that the pension will be credited by Thursday.

According to MCD employee unions, the pension amounts were credited to their bank accounts between 11am and 12 noon on Tuesday, while the transactions were allegedly reverted between 10pm and 11pm the same day.

An MCD spokesperson blamed a private bank for the lapse, and said that the disbursal “was not from the funds that belonged to the municipal corporation”.

More than more than 55,000 retired MCD employees have not received their pensions for the months of February and March, said AP Khan, president of the Confederation of MCD Employees’ Unions.

“This is a massive lapse on part of the corporation and banks. How can they automatically deduct the amounts from the accounts of thousands of senior citizens without even informing them about the reasons. It has created a lot of insecurity among us and many were confused that they have been financially cheated,” Khan said.

Deep Chand Mathur, former retired director of press and information of the then unified MCD, said the deductions led to confusion among the pensioners, and some had even started withdrawing the money. “We did not receive the pension after the month of January. The whole process has been turned into a joke. We have also filed a complaint in this regard,” he added

The issue of delayed pensions is not new. Despite repeated assurances made in the Delhi high court, the cash-strapped municipality continues to face salary-pension crisis with similar delays. The court has been hearing a bunch of pleas moved in 2020 over non-payment of salaries and pensions by MCD.

SP Ahluwalia, 74, who retired from the vigilance department in 2009 and heads the association of MCD’s pensioners, said besides the pension delay, other benefits they used to enjoy have also been discontinued.

“Our cashless medical facilities have been stopped due to fund crunch. Pension payments remain pending for 2-3 months. How are we expected to live like this? Now that the pensions were finally released, it was taken back in a few hours. We have filed a complaint with the bank but no reason is being provided to us,” he said.

A banking official, on condition of anonymity, explained that in case of transactions occurring due to error or human mistake, the transactions can be reverted back.

The MCD spokesperson cited above said that “efforts were being made to ensure that the pensions are distributed in a couple of days.” . “We have three banks through which salaries and pensions are distributed among the employees and retired workers. One of the banks had a human error due to which the pension amounts were disbursed,” he said.

Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said,“The mayor should answer that why did MCD withdrew pension from former employees’ at night after credited it.”

MCD mayor Shelly Oberoi tweeted on Thursday: “All the pensioners will receive their pension amounts by Thursday. We send pension through three banks but only PNB (Punjab National Bank) -related account has faced problems. Officers have been asked to seek a clarification from bank in this regard.”

MCD has around 1,47,000 employees and over 50,000 pensioners. Its combined salary-pension bill for each month is ₹774.8 crore. An MCD official said that Grade A officers, Ground B-teachers, nurses, paramedical staff, superintendents, administrative officers have been paid till January 2023; Group C-D workers health workers, sanitation workers and multi-task staff have been paid till February while all pensioners have received salaries till January. Till March 31, the corporation needed ₹402 crore in funds for salary-pension payment, according to the official.