New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) The Delhi government has told the High Court that Rs 98.35 crore has been released to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NrDMC) for payment of salaries to teachers employed in the civic body’s schools.
“… the Directorate of Education has sanctioned and released the second instalment of grant-in-aid in favour of NrDMC totalling Rs 98,35,00,000 towards the salaries for July and August 2020 under the Scheme of Primary Education during 2020-2021,” a government affidavit filed in the court through advocate Avinash Ahlawat said.
The Delhi government submitted that it had permitted the NrDMC to utilise the unspent balance of the previous fiscal, which comes to Rs 1,807.10 lakh, for the same purpose.
Following these submissions, the court said: “The MC shall ensure that the salaries of the teachers which — as we understand — are due and payable from May 2020 onwards, shall be released at the earliest.”
A division bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said that besides the grant-in-aid received from the Delhi government, the NrDMC shall also chip in by making funds available for paying the salaries of teachers in schools run by it.
The NrDMC through its counsel Mini Pushkarma told the court during the hearing that the Deputy Controller (Accounts) has tested coronavirus positive and as a result, his colleagues and others who were in touch with him have also quarantined themselves.
“In such circumstances, a fresh status report could not be filed by the NrDMC. The civic body thus seeks further time to file the report,” she said.
Posting the matter for further hearing on September 1, the bench asked the NrDMC to file a fresh status report.
The court was hearing a petition initiated by it on its own motion regarding the disbursement of unpaid salaries of teachers employed in schools run by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Previously, the court had pulled up the civic body over the non-payment of salaries to teachers who are also deployed on Covid-19 duty. The court had observed that it was a “sorry state of affairs” wherein the teachers, who can be equated to corona warriors, have not been paid salaries since the lockdown.
Taking strong note of the non-payment of salaries to the safai karamcharis and the teachers, the bench had taken suo motu cognisance of the issue and converted it into a Public Interest Litigation.
–IANS
anb/tsb/bg
