The Commissioner of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Monday directed the body to layoff employees on contract. The corporation, which is facing severe cash crunch, has decided to work with a trim workforce to shore up finances.
Tens of thousands of contractual employees suffered a setback on Monday as the corporation decided to phase out its non-permanent resources. The contractual employees include safai karamcharis, school teachers and Domestic Breeding Checker (DBC) workers.
An official in the corporation said, “NMC has been reeling under debt. The north corporation has more hospitals, schools to grapple with than SDMC. In terms of property tax collection, SDMC seems more profitable than EDMC and NMC.
There is a difference of Rs1,100 crore between SDMC and NMC incomes.” East Delhi Municipal Corporation, which too is reeling under financial losses, was given a suitable grant by the lieutenant Governor in January 2015. The corporation was, however, tasked with certain directives to not provide any concession or rebate in taxes, fees or charges, no fresh recruitment of Group-IV employees such as safai karamcharis and beldars.
The safai karamcharis engaged on temporary basis will have to discontinue their job in a year. No new schemes will be launched without Government say-so. For NMC, monthly expenditure on salaries remains at Rs170 crore with the yearly expenditure aggregating to Rs2,100 crore. For EDMC, the monthly expenditure on salary is Rs87 crore.
In a letter to the civic body, NMC Commissioner PK Gupta wrote that the corporation is facing serious financial squeeze and that the proposal for engagement or extension of retired municipal employees on contractual basis should not be processed.
Gupta also mentioned that employees already engaged on contractual basis should discontinue on completion of their sanctioned period. He mentioned that the department should make “appropriate arrangements” to work with the available resources.
“Ever since the trifurcation of the MCD, the civic body is stuck in a quagmire. Earlier there was a sense of uniformity in the MCD. Similarly if different political parties rule the three bodies in future, then things are bound to be much more complex,” said an official.