MC staff unpaid, chief says GST amount awaited

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 16

Employees of the Municipal Corporation have not been paid salaries for October. The cash-strapped corporation has been struggling as it is yet to receive Rs 120 crore as GST. The MC has been released just Rs 10 crore by the government.

The Municipal Commissioner, Jaskiran Singh, said the state government had already been briefed about the financial status of the MC. “We expect to get the GST amount by Monday. Only then will we be able to provide salaries to the employees. Till then, they will have to bear with us,” he said, adding that the MC expects to get about Rs 25-30 crore in the next four or five days.

The vice-chairman of the Municipal Karamchari Dal, Chaudhry Yashpal, said it was becoming too difficult for employees to sustain as they had taken loans for various purposes. “They wait for their salaries, which are never given on time. The civic body should give a serious thought to the plight of employees and salaries be disbursed on time,” he said.

The employees said the MC should have timely arranged for salaries as for workers, such as safai karamcharis, beldars, sewer men, the salary was the only way to feed their families. “When it is not given on time, we have to borrow money from others. If the staff and officials start working honestly, there will be no financial crunch. Recoveries are never made on time. Revenue worth crores can be generated by recovering outstanding water and sewerage bills. While officials have no dearth of money, workers like us suffer because of the delay in releasing salaries,” said a widow, who works as a safai worker.