‘MCD hasn’t paid wages for months’

Thousands of safai karamcharis across municipal zones such as Najafgarh, Karol Bagh, Shahdara North and South, south zone and Central zone stayed away from work over the weekend.

Thousands of safai karamcharis across municipal zones such as Najafgarh, Karol Bagh, Shahdara North and South, south zone and Central zone stayed away from work over the weekend.

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They allege that they have not been paid wages — some of them, for as long as seven months.

The reason, they claimed, was that some of them are yet to be registered with MCD’s biometric system of attendance, while the rest face difficulties marking their attendance with the biometric machines.

The karamcharis, mainly daily wagers, now want MCD to either rectify its machines or “do away with the biometric system of attendance” for sanitation workers — a demand the MCD isn’t willing to consider.

“The workers have been agitating for quite some months now over numerous issues. While their demand for regularisation is valid and has already been considered, they must continue registering their attendance with the biometric system. We will check for any technical flaws but doing away with the system is out of question,” said Yogender Chandolia, chairman of MCD’s standing committee.

While the payments due for May has been reportedly released for workers in the Karol Bagh zone, there is no word on the same in the remaining zones. The workers claim the problem began when MCD made biometric registration for its entire staff compulsory.