The East Delhi Municipal Corporation is reeling under massive financial crisis and has failed to pay salaries to its employees for past few months. Taking notice of the dwindling finances of the EDMC, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has sought a report from the corporation. Moreover EDMC has been incurring a loss of Rs500 crore every year since its inception and has been unable to stop the rot.
The MHA sought a detailed report from EDMC Mayor Meenakshi and asked her to identify the reasons for the losses. “We received a call from the Home Ministry on Tuesday where we were asked to give the financial records of EDMC. We have forwarded the information to the Ministry now,” said the Mayor said.
Over the years, the EDMC has remained perennially debt-ridden and the situation has turned grim. It could be judged from the fact that the corporation has no money to pay the salary to its employees, forcing the employees have threatened to a stir of their dues was not paid to them. The workers have been endlessly awaiting their salaries for the past few months and the wait is getting longer. However, Meenakshi has assured that their grievances would be addressed. “The workers will soon be paid and their grievances will also be taken into consideration”.
It may be noted that EDMC incurs a debt of nearly a whopping Rs500 crore every year. While it receives a revenue of about Rs700 crore, the expenditure shoots up to Rs1,200 crore creating a gap of Rs500 crore. “There is a huge difference between the revenue that we receive every time and the amount that we spend on civic works. There is an urgent need for the revenue to be increased in order to make ends meet. We have been reeling under the heavy debt and hope the situation becomes better,” the Mayor added.