Left with just Rs 3.5 crore, North MCD goes to L-G for 'dues' from Delhi govt

New Delhi: With just Rs 3.5 crore left as cash in hand as of the beginning of this month, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD) has now written to L-G Anil Baijal seeking funds from the Delhi government so that they can pay pending salaries and pensions to current and retired staffers. Following this, the L-G has written to the Delhi government — requesting that it release an additional Rs 328 crore to the civic body.

With the lack of funds and a constant threat from employees to strike due to non-payment of salaries, the North MCD has had to halt many major projects.

The critical financial crisis has resulted in non-payment of salaries to teachers, safai karamcharis, doctors, etc since September 2021. The situation has resulted in various unions under the civic body to strike. Over 7,000 teachers under North MCD have been on strike for the last 16 days over non-payment of salaries and other dues, refusing to take online classes. Additionally, the confederation MCD employees union had announced an indefinite strike last week, which was temporarily suspended after talks with officials.

According to North MCD Commissioner Sanjay Goel's letter, "In North DMC payment of salaries to our employees is getting inordinately delayed due to severe financial crisis... North DMC has also not been able to implement orders of revision of DA announced recently for want of funds. Salaries and pensions are pending for majority of our employees for almost 3 months now except Safai Karamcharis &Medical staff."

Outlining their financial position, the North MCD said that they are expected to bring in around Rs 450-500 crore from their own revenue sources till the end of the current fiscal in addition to the Rs 274.5 crore expected to come in as the last installment from the Delhi government.

But this too falls short of what the MCD needs for the rest of the year. The Commissioner said that total liabilities till the end of the fiscal are amounting to over Rs 4,700 crore, of which the bare minimum fund requirement is at least Rs 2,065.24 crore. Of this, pending salaries and pensions alone account for Rs 1,168.60 crore.

The civic body said that the Delhi government had purportedly slashed allocation to it in the revised budget estimate and sought that this reduction of around Rs 328 crore be reinstated. Picking up on this, L-G Baijal wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his intervention, seeking that the Rs 328 crore be released to the MCD.

In a statement, the Delhi government denied owing any money to the MCDs as per its constitutional obligations. "Delhi government has already transferred all the funds owed to the three MCDs as per its constitutional obligations and not even a single rupee is held back. It is the Centre that owes the corporations Rs 12,000 crore.

"The Centre gives grants to all municipal corporations across the country, based a formula of Rs 488 per person of the population. However, it is not paying grants to the three MCDs for the last 17 years. Further, thousands of crores of property tax arrears are also pending from various Central government agencies and for free advertisements on hoardings. The MCDs can pay salaries to its employees by recovering these dues but is not doing so to extort and defame Delhi government," the statement said.