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HC asks Delhi govt to release ₹8 Cr for North MCD to pay resident docs
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday asked the Delhi government to release funds to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation for the payments of stipend or
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday asked the Delhi government to release funds to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation for the payments of stipend or emoluments to resident doctors in the six hospitals run by the civic body.
A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Prateek Jalan asked the Delhi government to release within 15 days ₹8 crore to pay salaries for June, as it had done earlier last month on the court’s orders, to the North corporation without waiting for the completion of paperwork, so that resident doctors can be paid.
The bench made it clear that the amount being released was meant solely for paying stipends or emoluments of resident doctors in the body’s six hospitals. It also directed the corporation to complete all paperwork in relation to the Delhi government’s fund disbursal.
The Delhi government did not respond to requests for comment.
The additional standing counsel of the Delhi government, Satyakam, told the court that the corporation has not given the utilisation certificates for the funds that had been released earlier.
However, the court made it clear it was not going into the other issues between the Delhi government and the corporation with regard to payment of salaries of other employees of north Delhi corporation and the funds it claims it is yet to receive under various heads.
The court was hearing a plea it had initiated itself based on news reports that doctors of Kasturba Hospital have threatened to resign because they have not been paid salaries since March this year.
On Wednesday, advocate Akhil Mittal, the standing counsel of north Delhi corporation, told the court that it has paid resident doctors’ salaries till May. In an affidavit, he told the court that the salary up to April of all of its regular doctors has also been paid.
The court also directed the corporation to place before the bench the utilisation certificates indicating that the amount of ₹8 crore released by the Delhi government earlier, on court orders, were used to pay the resident doctors,
The matter will now be heard on August 31.
