New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) Over 8,000 teachers of 714 schools run by North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD), who have been working day and night in food distribution and door-to-door awareness campaign against COVID-19, have found themselves entangled in a political tussle between the BJP-led North MCD and the AAP state government.
These teachers claim that they have not received salaries since February leaving them out of cash and the lockdown period has only worsened the effects with shopkeepers denying them credit facilities. “They have deployed us on food distribution duties and told us to visit every door to screen people for COVID-19, but what about the salary? Last salary that we received was for January, since then not a single penny has been credited to our accounts,” Ramnivas Solanki, President of MCD Teachers’ association said.
Ramnivas claims that the association has written to the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and the Mayor for the same but all efforts have gone in vain. “Chief Minister’s office said that our plea was forwarded to the concerned office for appropriate action. But we are yet to get fruits for our efforts,” he added.
The Mayor of North MCD however claimed they have asked for about Rs 1,000 crore from the state government but the latter has not been willing to provide the same. “State government is like a guardian to civic bodies and now when we are in trouble they must give up politics and give Rs 1,000 crore immediately for smooth functioning of the body,” Mayor Avtar Singh told IANS.
An official from the Delhi government however claimed that the state government has paid the civic body all its dues and if still it claims to be cash strapped then it must check where the money has gone.
Of the 8,000 teachers, the civic body owes approximately over a Rs 100 crore for these two months of salary. The salary for a teacher of MCD school starts from around Rs 50,000 per month and may well go up to around Rs 1 lakh per month depending on the experience and post of the teacher.
Currently these teachers reach schools daily at 10 am and distribute food to the migrant labourers, and others from weaker sections of society.
The teachers are then told to reach door-to-door and check if any family has a suspected case of coronavirus, for which they have been provided a temperature gun to measure body temperature of respondents.
–IANS
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