Why delay in paying salary to teachers, High Court asks Corporation

On Tuesday, Delhi high court questioned the delay by North Delhi Municipal Corporation in paying full salaries to its teachers engaged in Covid-19 duty.

A bench comprising of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad pointed out that even after taking into account the claim of the corporation that most dues had been cleared, it was evident that salaries for the months of May and June had not been cleared.

The high court’s poser came after the civic body said it has paid salaries to all 9,000 teachers on its rolls, till March and the 5,406 of them put on Covid-19 duty, have been given their dues for April.

Even as the corporation assured the court that salaries of the remaining teachers for April will be released by the end of July, the court said this will still leave the months of May and June and ordered both — the Delhi government and north corporation — to file fresh status reports by July 31, giving the updated status of release of funds or salaries in respect of the teachers employed by the civic body in its schools. It will next take up the matter on August 5.

The hearing witnessed both agencies indulging in blame game, with the corporation accusing Delhi government of not releasing grant-in-aid to the civic body due to which it is unable to pay the salaries of its employees, while the state government maintained that the grant payable by it to the civic body for release of salaries to its teachers was Rs 147 crore for the first quarter of this year, that is, from April to June and it has already been released in three monthly tranches.

As for the grant-in-aid required to be released by Delhi government for the second quarter (July to September), the government said the payment of Rs 49.17 crore for July will be released by the end of this month. The rest of the money in two tranches of the like amount will be given at the end of August and September, it added.

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