Hyderabad, March 01: Staff of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will be getting their monthly pay tomorrow unlike other government employees.
The ongoing non-cooperation movement by employees had led to doubts about salary payments elsewhere but those spearheading the agitation in the municipal corporation have been smarter. Staff dealing with the pay and accounts were allowed to do their work even as others busied themselves in the protest camp at the parking lot, playing cricket, tenni-koit and so on.
Initial over-enthusiasm by some staff members led to the servers being shut down when the stir took a more serious turn 10 days ago.
But, soon realisation dawned upon them and the servers were quickly set right to ensure that pre-salary work goes on uninterrupted.
Thus, “salaries will be paid promptly tomorrow,” said a senior official on Monday.
It includes pay for the two-day bandh call participated enthusiastically by the municipal staff including the contract workers of the sanitation department.
“We cannot cut pay for the two days because staff was in no position to attend to their work during that period,” he reasons.
Contract staff unlucky
But, no such luck for contract sanitary staff as pay will be cut for the two-day absence.
Each month a sum of about Rs. 25 crore is disbursed for salaries and pensions to the 27,000-odd staff including 20,000 contract employees.
Revenues hit
Revenue collection though has been hit, it is conceded. February and March are key months for revenue collection with each day expected to net at least one to two crore rupees but it has been nil in the last few days. Nearly Rs. 200 crore is yet to be collected to meet the Rs. 600 crore target of property tax collection, the bread and butter revenue.
Couple of meetings held to get some works moving in the head office or the circle offices have been thwarted either by ‘polite’ appeals or intimidation, the result is closed doors of all sections. As it handles subjects which matter to daily lives of the citizens, the “won’t work” mode has affected many.
BPS applications pile up
Building permission applications have been piling up while those wanting to apply fresh have no way to go.
Trade licence fee collection has been tardy and it is estimated that close to 40,000 birth and death certificates are stuck in 18 circles awaiting approvals.
The shaky GHMC administration is also sourcing 1,000 personnel from Central government organisations like SCR, BSNL and others to man the forthcoming MLC polls on March 13.
-Agencies