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HC raps Centre, Delhi govt, civic bodies for not sorting out financial mess
New Delhi
New Delhi
The Delhi high court on Thursday lambasted the Centre, the Delhi government and the municipal corporations for their failure to solve disputes over disbursal of funds meant for the salaries of the current and former employees of the three civic bodies, particularly the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, while stating that unpaid workers have faced the “real pinch”.
A bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad said that it is for the government agencies to work in unison with each other and come up with a solution to release the salaries and pensions to the employees including doctors, nurses, paramedic staff, safai karamcharis, teachers, class-IV employees and retired staff like teachers and engineers. It asked the civic bodies to make an attempt to release the arrears as the festival of Diwali is round the corner.
“At the end of the day, the real pinch is being faced by the employees and their family members who have limited resources available to them and have stretched it to the maximum over the entire period of pandemic with hardly any nest egg left to tide over,” the court said.
The bench also directed the Delhi government to release the transfer funds pending for the month of July and August to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation by November 9 and November 13 respectively so that pensions can be paid to the retired employees, who have been awaiting payment since April.
The court was hearing a bunch of pleas relating to the disbursal of salaries to the employees/ex-employees of the various civic bodies who have been unpaid during the pandemic.
On Thursday, the court had expressed concern over the sad state of affairs on the non-payment of wages and pensions and termed it unacceptable that the retired staff are completely left high and dry as others are at least paid something.
“Don’t forget this is a festive season and besides their basic needs, wages are everybody’s right and where will they go to fulfil the basic needs of their families,” the court said, while adding that there are old and ailing persons who need to get medical treatments, which cannot wait.
On Thursday, appearing for the north corporation, its counsel said that the salaries for the doctors, paramedics, health workers have been paid till September. With respect to the teachers, he submitted that the salaries have been given till August.
“The safai karamcharis have been paid till August and other class IV employees have been paid till June,” the counsel said urging the court to pass an order directing the Delhi government to release Rs 212 crore against the payment to the pensioners.
The counsels for East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) also alleged that the Delhi government had squeezed funds and not released the full amount due to the corporations, leading to non-payment of salaries.
However, appearing for the Delhi government, additional standing counsel Satyakam, disputed the fact and said that like the civic bodies, its revenue had also gone down due to the pandemic. He stated that the Centre has to pay over Rs 10,000 crore to the Delhi government on account of GST revenue, due to which it is also facing a cash crunch.
Central government standing counsel Anil Soni also disputed the submission of the Delhi government and said he will have to obtain instructions on the amount. He said that some amount has already been disbursed to the Delhi government.
To this the court said, “This court cannot act as an arbitrator between the government agencies, workout the budgets of the Delhi government and the civic authorities and arrive at a conclusion as to which agency is at fault”.
Regarding the retired employees, the court was informed that NrDMC, EDMC and SDMC have released pensions till April, August and September respectively.
Following a three hour long hearing, the court directed all the departments to file individual status reports and posted the matter for further hearing on December 16.
