VASCO
Salary delays have now become a regular affair in the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) and workers have now not been paid for November, leaving them high and dry for the festive season of Christmas.
While delays in disbursing salaries have become a major problem for the MMC since the last few years, MMC Chairperson Damodar Kaskar attributed the present delay in payment of salaries to some confusion in banking details and assured that salaries would be cleared soon.
"We had received salary grants in October for around Rs 1.40 crore, but there was a confusion in banking details. The Indian Bank and Dena Bank have merged recently and the IFSC code has changed.”
“However, we had put the old IFSC code and the cheques went back and it will take some time for the formalities to get the funds back. However, we will clear payments soon and the delay was only because of this confusion,” explained Kaskar.
He said the MMC has to pay salaries of around Rs 1.4 crore, but the recoveries were only 50 percent of this amount.
“We are trying very hard for recoveries but due to some legal issues and litigations we cannot get full recovery," said Kaskar.
It may be recalled that municipal workers had received their salaries for the month of October only recently, after much agitation and intervention of Urban Development Minister Milind Naik.
While the staff were given bonus and allowances for Diwali, the salaries for October were paid almost at the end of November.
Municipal workers are usually paid for the month of December on the 28th of the month on account of Christmas and New Year festivities, but with November salaries unpaid till now, chances of receiving the December salary on 28th of the month seems uncertain.
