Lack of finances leaves corona warriors in lurch in North MCD

New Delhi: While the government has been urging employers to pay their employees in view of the nationwide lockdown owing to the spread of deadly COVID-19 virus, it is the corona warriors in the national capital who have been forced to manage without salaries.

The teachers of North MCD's schools and nurses of various hospitals in North MCD have accused the civic body for not paying their salaries for over three months now. Over 8,000 teachers of 714 schools run by North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD), who have been working day and night in food distribution and door-to-door awareness campaign against COVID-19, have found themselves entangled in a political tussle between the BJP-led North MCD and the AAP state government.

These teachers claim that they have not received salaries since February leaving them out of cash and the lockdown period has only worsened the effects with shopkeepers denying them credit facilities. "They have deployed us on food distribution duties and told us to visit every door to screen people for COVID-19, but what about the salary? Last salary that we received was for January, since then not a single penny has been credited to our accounts," Ramnivas Solanki, President of MCD Teachers' association said.

Ramnivas claims that the association has written to the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and the Mayor for the same but all efforts have gone in vain. "Chief Minister's office said that our plea was forwarded to the concerned office for appropriate action. But we are yet to get fruits for our efforts," he added.