They work, but only on paper

The overflowing, stinking garbage bin in your colony is directly related to the missing Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) safai karamchari (sanitation worker) is an easy guess.

The overflowing, stinking garbage bin in your colony is directly related to the missing Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) safai karamchari (sanitation worker) is an easy guess.

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What residents don’t know is that these absent workers got their wages even while the garbage lay strewn on the street, street dogs frolicking in it. A special squad of ex-servicemen working for the civic body found out during inspections, which started on May 24, that on an average day 25 per cent of the safai karamcharis in the city’s south zone were missing from work. These workers had marked themselves present at the start of the day.

The squad’s job involves checking whether MCD employees, who mark themselves present, are actually carrying out the work during office hours.

“The introduction of the biometric system might have been successful in improving attendance of the MCD employees but some continue to evade work. They mark their attendance on time but are untraceable from the field,” said Suman Majumder, director, enforcement cell, MCD.

“We found out in zones such as Shahdara, more than 30 per cent employees were missing from work on daily basis. We will carry out inspection in all the zones to fix accountability.”

What has also come to light during the inspections is that these absent employees continued to draw salary for the days they had skipped work.

“It is public money going waste. We have recommended heavy fines be imposed on such employees and they be put under suspension. We have sent a report to the MCD commissioner to take a decision on it,” said a senior MCD officer.

The squad has also recommended cutting of the day’s salary for missing work.