250 Chandigarh Municipal Corporation employees lose part of their salary

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 30

About 250 Municipal Corporation employees did not get their full salary for the month of May as they were found to be “irregular” on their duties.

Their location was tracked through the GPS-enabled wrist watches given to them. Many of the violators are sanitation workers.

Meanwhile, a sanitation committee of the MC said a chance should be given to the workers and demanded that their pending salaries be released at the earliest.

The panel also said workers should be heard and they all should be taught proper use of the watches.

“They should be given one chance. Some of the workers find issues with watch’s location and charging,” said councillor Bharat Kumar, chairman of the committee.

Dr Amrit Warring, MC’s Medical Officer of Health, however, said, “We will strictly abide by what was passed by the House earlier and salaries will be given on the basis of watches. However, if any employee comes up with a genuine reason, we will exempt him/her.”

Of the 250 employees, who had to lose a part of their salaries, 82 are sanitation workers. These employees include regular, contractual and outsourced staff.

Over a year after introducing the watches to track 4,000 MC employees, MC Commissioner KK Yadav had in the April House meeting declared that salaries for May would be disbursed on the basis of “live location of the wrist watches”.