Ruckus in East Corporation House over non-payment of salaries

Congress councillors created ruckus in the East Corporation’s House meeting by shouting slogans demanding salaries and pensions for the employees at the civic agency’s headquarters in Patparganj on Monday.

The uproar led to the suspension of the House meeting for some time, and later, it ended abruptly.

As soon as the Congress councillors entered the meeting, they started shouting slogans: ‘Gareebo ko pension do (give pension to the poor)’ and ‘Karamchariyo ke paas salary nahi, BJP ko tension nahi (employees have not got salaries, BJP is not tensed)’.

East Corporation Mayor Meenakshi kept asking the opposition to take its seat but the councillors did not oblige. So she suspended the House meeting for 10 minutes.
Soon after the House was resumed, the Congress councillors tore papers and hurled them in the air.

The mayor said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is responsible for not giving funds to the civic agency. “Kejriwal se lado jake (go and fight with Kejriwal),” she said.

Bharatiya Janata Party councillors took a dig at the Congress, saying, “Rahul Gandhi ko dhoondo jao, yahan shor mat macaho (go and look for Rahul Gandhi and don’t make noise here).

“Sheila Dikshit trifurcated the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The Congress is responsible for the present situation of the civic agency,” said Mahak Singh, BJP councillor from Brahampuri.

According to the East Corporation, its over 27,000 employees have been paid salaries for January. “Some of them might not have got salaries for the last couple of months,” said a senior official with civic agency.

It requires Rs 100 crore a month just to pay salaries and pensions to its staff.
A senior official said over 30,000 people have not been paid old-age pension for the last 27 months. “It amounts to over Rs 107 crore,” he added.

The East Corporation gives Rs 1,000 as old-age pension to over 700 people from each ward on the recommendation of the area councillor.