Depressed over his failure to meet his family’s financial needs because he was allegedly not paid salary since March 2016, a health staffer at Municipal school committed suicide in GTB Enclave two days ago, police said on Friday.
Hridesh Kumar Sharma (46), who worked as an attendant in an East Delhi Municipal Corporation school, committed suicide by hanging himself at his house. Not just Sharma, many Municipal employees have given up their lives in the past months as they have not been paid salaries, said insiders.
Following the incident, Municipal unions are planning to hold demonstration against the MCD in the coming days. Also, they are expected to strike work over the issue.
As many as 70,000 employees of all the three civic bodies have not received salaries since March 2016. “Even though the city witnessed a sanitation disaster as the safai karamcharis went on strike, the authorities have failed to pay heed to their needs. This time teachers, engineers, doctors, para-medical staff, administrative personnel, etc have come under one banner deciding to relaunch a strike. We will ensure a massive agitation against the non-payment of salaries as it is our basic right,” said Rajendra Mewati, a leader of sanitation staff.
The municipal corporation also fails to comply with the court’s order to pay the salary by 7th of the month. “The court directed them to pay the salaries by the 7th of the month, but they never do so. The Municipal is not even listening to the court and we are having harrowing times,” said Mewati.
The Delhi High Court on Friday said it was not concerned with the dispute between the AAP Government and the BJP-led three municipal corporations in the city and only wants that all employees of the civic bodies get their salaries for which it will pass appropriate orders. It also directed the three Municipals to pay the salaries to its employees within the first week of the month. EDMC Mayor Satya Sharma, however, said employees had been paid for the month of March and also added that the corporation has released the payment for April.
Among other things, the Municipal employees have been demanding payment of their arrears, cashless medical facilities and permanence of the contractual workers. A few months ago, the MCD workers had gone on a massive strike for nearly two weeks. However, the strike was called off after the court intervened in the matter.