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North MCD says yet to get funds for teachers’ salaries, govt says released money
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
The North Delhi Municipal Corporation told the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that it has been unable to pay employees, including resident doctors, as the state government has not released entire funds for the first quarter of this financial year.
Appearing for the North DMC, its standing counsel Akhil Mittal, told a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan that around Rs 162 crore was due to the corporation from Delhi government in the first quarter of the financial year 2020-21 and of that only Rs 27 crore had been sanctioned, which is “yet to be seen”.
The court was hearing a PIL it had initiated based on news reports that doctors of old Delhi’s Kasturba Hospital have threatened to resign as they have not been paid salaries since March this year.
In response, additional solicitor general (ASG) Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Delhi government, said on Wednesday that in its report filed on Tuesday, July 7, the amounts released to the corporation by various departments had been indicated.
Jain said all dues had been cleared by the Delhi government and asked the Delhi government counsel to file a response to the submissions made by the civic body.
The bench made it clear that it was only dealing with the non-payment of salaries of resident doctors of hospitals run by the corporation and not all its doctors and other employees.
In its status report, filed in response to the plea that the court has initiated, the corporation said salaries for March and April months of all resident doctors in hospitals run by the civic body had been paid. The corporation also said that salaries for the month of March of all of its regular doctors had also been paid.
It said because of non-release of the requisite amount by the Delhi government, the corporation has been unable to release salaries of its doctors in time.
The Delhi government in its status report said it had released Rs 8 crore to the corporation, as directed by the court, for payment of the April salary of resident doctors. It said paying salaries of doctors and other employees of the corporation was the sole responsibility of the civic body and the Delhi government only releases funds which it is obliged to as per budget estimates of the financial year.
The government said the urban development department had released the first instalment of the funds allocated to the north and south MCDs under the basic tax assignment. It said Rs 212.53 crore had been released to north MCD and Rs 112.62 to south MCD.
The state government said its education department had already released Rs 147.50 crore to north MCD, Rs 97.50 crore to south MCD and Rs 75 crore to east MCD as grant-in-aid for the current financial year.
Besides that, its revenue department had released Rs 33.65 crore to north MCD, Rs 48.02 crore to south MCD and Rs 11.40 crore to east MCD in the current financial year, the Delhi government said in its report.
The matter would be now heard on July 29.
