Blame it on its financial goof-up, the three municipal corporations of Delhi cannot afford to pay its employees anymore. While the corporation is obliged to provide proper civic amenities, the current financial status is such that MCD's revenue is not enough to make its employees survive.
According to the data provided by the MCD, the internal revenue of three corporations is Rs5,975 crore. The combined salary expenditure is nearly Rs6,240 crore, which includes salary of employees, arrears and medical allowances. Moreover, there is an extra burden of Rs2,000 crore with the implementation of Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.
The revenue collection by way of house tax, parking fees, advertisement, conversion charges, building plan sanction, etc do not come in regularly leading to delay in payment of salaries and other expenses. This is the situation when around 40 per cent posts are vacant and a majority of the employees are contractual workers who are paid less than their permanent counterparts. The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that the corporations are not able to continue their primary responsibilities like sanitation, health and primary education.
"Until and unless the corporation is unified in the most systematic way, we cannot ensure proper delivery of services. The MCDs have gone horribly wrong in managing their financial accounts," said an official.
A look into each of three corporations individually shows that North MCD's salary expenditure is Rs2,640 crore as against its internal revenue which is only Rs2,375 crore, leaving a gap of Rs265 crore. East MCD's condition is more or less the same with a gap of Rs95 crore between their salary expenditure and revenue.
The condition of South MCD is marginally better as the civic body has estimated earnings of Rs2,755 crore against salary expenditure of Rs2,640.
Not just that, the three agencies have expenses of Rs2,476 crore on education, Rs2,628 crore on sanitation and Rs1,252 crore on health and or Rs6,356 crore in total for three overheads. The total Budget estimate of the MCDs is around Rs14,300 crore. Of the total, Rs6,240 crore (nearly 50 per cent of the total budget) goes into paying salaries and the rest is expected to be spent on sanitation, education and health sectors.
"The revenue collection against its estimates has been decreasing by the year. In 2012-13, the corporation collected Rs2,924 which is Rs547 crore more than this year's collection of Rs2,376 crore as internal revenue. We have never seen this state of affairs in MCD before. We didn't have to face this during previous Government and President Rule. The deficit is going higher and higher, we have not received a certain amount from the Delhi Government in the form of Municipal Reform Funds as we could not achieve the fiscal target. As per the rule, Municipal Reform Funds (MRF) is given only if the corporation is in a financially better condition" said Mukesh Goel, leader of Opposition in North MCD.
Moreover, senior officials in North MCD said not a single penny has been spent out of discretionary fund by senior functionaries like the Mayor, Chairman of Standing Committee and Chairman of different special committees like education, sanitation and garden. According to MCD data, in the current year, allocations amounting Rs345 crore for various development works were not utilised till December 2015.
Moreover, there is a discrepancy between the data provided by the Delhi Government and MCD regarding the allocation of funds. According to the Delhi Government data, amount of Rs892.92 crore earmarked under proposed revised estimate for the North Delhi Municipal Corporation under Non-Plan has been released. In case of East Delhi Municipal Corporation, the entire amount of Rs465.53 crore has been released by the Government. South Delhi Municipal Corporation has been given Rs668 crores i.e. 80 per cent, out of Rs830.41 crore. Whereas, the MCD alleged that the Delhi Government owes them Rs3800 crore, with Rs1,200 crore to North MCD, Rs1,500 crore to South MCD and Rs1,100 crore to East MCD.