2 weeks Ago
Ludhiana: Chairman of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), M Venkatesan, visited the Civil Hospital and other areas of the city along with local officials on Friday. Later in the afternoon, he held a meeting with employee leaders and employees in the presence of municipal corporation (MC) officials at the Circuit House. In the meeting that lasted for about two hours, the employees submitted several complaints to the chairman.
The employee leaders told the chairman that there has been a scam of about Rs 4.75 crore at the MC. Although an FIR has been lodged against seven employees in this scam, the perpetrators of this scam are being shielded.
The corporation officials are trying to save their favourite employees by only punishing the lower-rank employees, they alleged. MC commissioner Sandeep Rishi told the chairman that a police case has been registered against the seven employees after the initial investigation and against 44 people whose accounts received illegally transferred funds. Further investigation of this case is still going on at the police level, he said.
Apart from this, another scam has come to light, in which illegal transfer of funds to the bank accounts of about 160 outsiders has been revealed. In this case too, FIR is yet to be registered. The chairman instructed the corporation commissioner to take strict action in this case.
The issue of corporation employees not getting their salaries in time also dominated the chairman’s meeting. Employees rued that as they do not get their salaries on time, the household budget gets disturbed. Also, they said that all grade-four employees are not being made permanent and they are getting only Rs 8,500 per month.
The EPF amount deducted from the employees’ salaries is also not being deposited on time, they alleged. The employee leaders said that sanitation workers are being exploited financially. Team leaders are demanding Rs 2,000 per month from the workers who collect garbage going door to door and deliver it to the static compactor.
Although this matter is also in the notice of the higher authorities, no action has been taken, they said. When the chairman reached Circuit House, factionalism of the employee unions was clearly visible. On the one hand, the officials of the Municipal Employees Sangharsh Committee welcomed Chairman, while on the other hand other employee organisations raised slogans for being ignored.
Employee leaders alleged that they had to wait for more than two hours for the meeting..
