HC orders criminal cases against MCD

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Sanjiv Khanna gave the go-ahead for registration of an FIR,following submission by the standing counsel for the Delhi government Najmi Waziri that at least 1,588 ‘ghost’ employees,in whose names salaries had been withdrawn,were untraceable.

Waziri submitted that the police needed to register an FIR against the erring MCD officials involved in withdrawal of salaries on behalf of the ‘ghost’ employees of MCD.

On Waziri’s submission,the court also directed MCD to initiate a departmental inquiry against the civic body officials responsible for release of salaries to the non-existant employees.

The court has also asked the Delhi government’s Chief Secretary to convene a meeting of senior MCD officials along with the police chief to put in place a system to avoid recurrence of such a farce in future. The Police Commissioner has also been asked to give details to the court on the issue in eight weeks.

Meanwhile,MCD counsel Sudhir Nandrajog submitted that the agency is considering steps to avoid any kind of absenteeism or the release of salary in the name of non-existing employees.

Earlier,the government had informed the court that MCD had caused a loss of about Rs 500 crore to the public exchequer in the past five years by paying salaries to hundreds of employees who were not even appointed.

In May last year,the court had directed the police chief to conduct an independent inquiry into the scam after allegations that a probe by the civic agency would not be proper.

The court order came during the hearing of a PIL filed by ‘Jagrook Welfare Society’,seeking a probe by CBI or an independent agency into the scam.

Following a November 2009 media report on the non-existing MCD employees drawing salary from the civic body,the civic authority had revealed that there were 22,853 gardeners and sweepers as ‘ghost’ employees on its payrolls and salary had been drawn on their behalf despite the fact that they were actually not employed.