Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) The Delhi Police told the Delhi High Court Wednesday that 168 employees of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) have failed to turn up for physical verification camps held to weed out “ghost” employee. The division bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna asked the additional commissioner of police, crime branch (economic offence wing), to submit a detailed report on the next date of hearing March 23, as they have submitted before the court that physical verification of employees may take some time to complete.

The MCD admitted in November last year that there were about 22,853 gardeners and sweepers as “ghost” employees on its pay rolls and it was an administrative lapse that cost the civic agency Rs.17 crore every month.

The police report submitted Wednesday said that verification of 10,702 employees had been conducted.

“Verification was conducted after organising repeated physical verification camps. Subsequently, door to door verification was also conducted with respect to the employees who did not turn up at verification camps,” the report said.

It was found that 211 employees remained absent during these verification exercise. However, 13 of them turned later to get themselves verified at the office of the special investigation team.

“Later, 30 more came forward to get themselves verified. Therefore, remaining 168 employees remained absent who did not present themselves for verification despite various efforts,” states the report.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation by NGO Jagrook Welfare Society seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry or an independent probe into the matter.