NEW DELHI: Teachers, paramedics and nurses employed with the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Saturday said that they stare at a ‘black Diwali’ yet again, as their salaries for the past month are still due.
The municipal teachers’ union said that this is the third year in a row that the cash-strapped civic body is not able to pay their salaries even on Diwali. Over 8,000 teachers are employed with the civic body. Besides, it runs six hospitals in the city and has over 5,000 nurses, paramedics and technical staff employed with it, who have not received their dues for September.
“Only safai karamcharis have been paid the last month salaries. All others have not been given their dues, while it is just four days left to Diwali. This is the third consecutive year that the staff is forced to observe a ‘kali (black) Diwali’,” said General Secretary, Nagar Nigam Shikshak Sangh Ramnivas Solanki.
He added that in the political fight between the BJP and the AAP, which rules the city government, thousands of teachers and other employees have been made to suffer.