SDMC's expenditure on salaries abnormally high as against functioning: HC

The expenditure incurred by SDMC on paying salaries of employees is abnormally high as compared to its functioning which is not justified, the Delhi High Court Tuesday said. It also asked the civic body whether the biometric attendance of staff was linked to their Aadhaar.

New Delhi: The expenditure incurred by SDMC on paying salaries of employees is abnormally high as compared to its functioning which is not justified, the Delhi High Court Tuesday said. It also asked the civic body whether the biometric attendance of staff was linked to their Aadhaar.

The high court observed that when the corporation was not doing that much sanitation and development work, how it could keep paying so much of salaries to employees. “Is biometric attendance system implemented in MCDs? Have you linked it with their Aadhaar? Is geotagging being done to track their locations,” asked a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh.

The counsel for South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) told the court that the biometric attendance system was there in the civic body and he will find out if it is attached to Aadhaar and if geotagging is being done. Advocate Divya Prakash Pande, representing SDMC, said he will file an affidavit on the steps taken by the corporation regarding these issues.

He submitted that the monthly expenses of SDMC include Rs 214 crore for salaries and Rs 30 crore for pensions. The bench said a municipal corporation’s job is not only to pay salaries but also to do sanitation and other development work.

“If you see your expenditure in comparison to others in the country or abroad, you are incurring abnormally high expenditure on salaries which is not justified looking at your core functioning of sanitation. You need to see if you are overstaffed and paying salaries…,” the bench said, adding, “we want you to walk, we are giving you sticks but you should not make it a crutch”.

To this, the SDMC’s counsel said they are reviewing if they are overstaffed and how much overstaffed. The bench said everyone is aware of ghost employees where people are sitting at home and enjoying their salaries. Calling it appalling, the bench said the court need not tell the corporation about its work.

The court also asked the SDMC to comply with its July 8 order to file an affidavit on the steps taken to augment their resources and its financial position which will be necessary to decide the corporation’s application seeking direction to the Delhi government not to recover a certain amount of money from it during the pandemic.

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The court listed the plea for August 11, when various other petitions relating to non-payment of salaries and pensions to teachers, hospital staff, sanitation workers, engineers are also coming up for hearing.

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, raised preliminary objections on the application saying the corporation cannot move two forums for the same remedy and SDMC’s similar plea is also pending before a single judge of the high court.

The bench made it clear it was not asking the Delhi government to not recover the amount from the corporation and it was only saying that it shall not make any recovery during the tough times of pandemic.

“Employees are employees, whether working with Delhi government, MCDs, or private companies. They all suffer if they do not get salaries. It is the duty of all of us to together tide over the situation which has arisen due to the pandemic,” it said.

Earlier, the high court had said it was pained and shocked at the entire state of affairs and the callousness of the authorities and had asked the three corporations — North Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation, and East Delhi Municipal Corporation to take steps to augment their resources and file affidavits in this regard. It had observed that the corporations are not only to pay salaries to employees but also to make it a world-class city and to manage issues like dengue, chikungunya, and malaria.

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PTI