New Delhi: MCD on Wednesday told the Delhi High
Court that after physical verification and registration of
biometric attendance it was found that more than 43,000
substitute safai karmacharis are in the panel in different
zones.
Filing a status report before a bench headed by Chief
Justice Dipak Misra, MCD said the figure of substitute safai
karmchari was given as 22,223 and the verification work was
handed given to a company named M/s Tansline.
After obtaining the data from the agency and door-to-
door verification conducted recently by the company, the real
number of substitute safai karmacharis has gone upto 43,489.
Meanwhile, the bench directed the police to continue
its investigation into the alleged ghost employees and the
substitute safai karcharies in MCD.
In the last hearing, the police were directed to initiate
a separate inquiry to verify the authenticity of more than
22,000 safai karmacharis who have been associated with the
civic agency.
Appearing for the police, Standing Counsel Najmi
Waziri had told bench that as per the police report during the
door-to-door verification, 212 unnamed persons out of 22,853
ghost employees have been found missing so far whereas in a
recent verification it claimed only 12 persons have not been
traced and FIR was registered in this regard.
Earlier, the bench had transferred the probe to Crime
Branch of Delhi Police and directed its Commissioner for a
thorough investigation into the scam after being dissatisfied
with the in-house probe report submitted by MCD on the issue.
The bench had also given a direction to find out the
actual number of substitute safai karmacharis associated with
the agency.
In November 2009, following an actual verification, MCD
had revealed that 22,853 workers were its ghost employees.
The agency had admitted it was an administrative lapse
which has been costing the civic body Rs 17 crore every month.
The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed
by Jagrook Welfare Society, an NGO, through counsel C S
Parashar seeking a CBI or an independent agency probe into
the scam.
PTI
