New Delhi, Nov 26 (IANS) Irked residents Thursday said fresh recruits should be appointed in place of the 22,853 ‘non-existent’ employees who drew salaries from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). But the mayor has ruled out any such move, a day after the biometric attendance system blew the lid off the scam.
Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain has sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the bogus employees scam. But he said keeping more staff in place of the missing employees was out of question.

“The MCD is functioning as it is without these 22,853 employees. So they are just extra. We have ample people. We are not planning to recruit more staff but we need to ensure that non-performing staff doesn’t get salary,” he told IANS.

“A CBI enquiry is crucial in this matter because an investigation needs to be done so as to see who approved these fake employees, who is drawing their salary every month and the likes,” he added.

The MCD has 127,094 employees on record, but only 104,241 are registered on the biometric attendance system that came into place in August. Thus there are 22,853 bogus employees, who together were paid Rs.17 crore on a monthly basis.

As a large chunk of the ‘non-existent’ employees draw salaries cleaners and sweepers, the people want new employees to be appointed so that Delhi’s upkeep does not suffer.

“If these employees do not exist, then it is the duty of the MCD to employ new and real people in the cleaning and sanitation department. There are thousands of unemployed people in the country. If you are paying non-existent employees, you might as well employ fresh employees,” said Niketa Dutta, a south Delhi resident.

Some are grateful that the biometric system revealed the scam.

“It was a very good step to introduce the biometric system of attendance in the MCD. At least, the fact that there are bogus employees in the organisation has come out. Better late than never. I hope something concrete is done now,” said Niloy Gogoi, a 22-year-old management student living in Dwarka.

In the biometric attendance system, a staffer has to scan a finger or a card with the ‘reader’ to register his/her presence. The system was introduced in the MCD headquarters in Town Hall Aug 1, 2008. Subsequently, machines were also put up at 12 zonal offices.

Shivraaj Chauhan, a businessman living in Greater Kailash, feels scam or not, the MCD needs to perform its duty.

“I just want my locality to be clean and free from germs considering that diseases like dengue are creating havoc in the city,” Chauhan said.

Residents like Manju Goyal are worried about how the MCD will cope with the work to be completed ahead of the October 2010 Commonwealth Games.

“The Commonwealth Games are round the corner, the MCD is projecting a very bad image. Let these government officials do something concrete this time around instead of just fooling around,” said Goyal, a teacher.