Staffers unpaid, North MCD offers `25,000 to councillors for Chhath

New Delhi: Facing an acute fund crunch that has resulted in them not being able to pay staffers ahead of the festive season, the North MCD has now decided to allocate up to Rs 26 lakh (at Rs 25,000 per councillor) for councillors to use to set up Chhath Puja arrangements in their respective wards.

Standing Committee Chairman Jogi Ram Jain said, "A large number of Purvanchali residents reside in Delhi. Chhath Puja is a great festival of worship and faith for the people of Purvanchal and they celebrate it with great enthusiasm and vigor which requires that all arrangements should be properly arranged at Chhath Ghats."

The North MCD has also directed all Zonal Deputy Commissioners to ensure all Chhat Ghats are sanitised and have proper lighting.

Councillors who need or ask for the Rs 25,000 fund will be able to access it soon under this provision, according to North MCD officials. However, EDMC Leader of Opposition Vikas Goel (AAP) said that councillors are yet to receive a circular regarding the funds for Chhath, adding, "I doubt they will actually provide the money."

The North MCD is currently struggling to pay its employees, security guards and safai karamcharis — many of whom have complained to the authorities regarding this but have not received any relief yet. Several petitions are pending in courts with regards to their pending pay and courts here have at multiple times rebuked the MCD seriously for not being able to pay their staffers.

However, hundreds of staffers of the civic body are unable to make ends meet amid this and are disappointed at not having received their pay — rendering them incapable of celebrating the festive season.

A security guard working with the civic body for three years now said, "They haven't given me my salary in the last three months, I still come to work every day and have repeatedly asked them about it but they just keep telling me that it will come."

A sanitary worker with the MCD told Millennium Post, "We clean up regularly, do as per instructions and what not but when we ask for salary, we get no response. Good that they are celebrating festivals but we also have expenses and need money."