Nagpur civic body owes overtime to 6,000 staff months after poll duty

"

Officials and employees who worked day and night on extra duty for 45 days during the Nagpur Municipal Corporation elections are still awaiting their overtime payment. Around 5,000 to 6,000 officials and employees working across all 10 zones and the head office have been waiting for several months for this payment they are owed. Along with this, payment for some employees who were on election duty at the district collector's office is also stuck.

It had been decided that employees on election duty would get overtime of 15,000 to 25,000 rupees per person, and officials would get 45,000 to 55,000 rupees. But a considerable time has passed since the election process ended, and the amount still has not reached employees' accounts. Staff posted in the general administration department and a few select zones have received payment, but most employees are still waiting. Despite doing the same work, this difference and delay in payment has caused anger and discussion among employees.

The problem is that when files sent from the zones are checked at the head office, faults are found and the file is sent back to the same zone. After it is corrected in the zone, the file reaches the head office again. This cycle has been going on for the last 6 to 7 months, with files repeatedly shuttling between the zones and the Nagpur district head office. Employees say this has now become just a game of files, and the fruit of their labour has got caught up in this administrative back and forth. Employees have demanded that they not be made to wait any longer and that their payment be released immediately.

Deputy Commissioner of the municipal corporation, Nirbhay Jain, said on the matter that some officials and employees posted on election duty have already been paid. According to him, payment for employees in some zones is pending because errors were found in some files, which were sent back to be corrected. He said the work of correcting the errors is almost complete and all remaining officials and employees will soon be paid their outstanding dues.

"