Top cop to scan MCD’s ghost staff scam

“We are inclined to direct for a thorough investigation by the Commissioner of police so that the truth can emerge,” a division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Madan B Lokur said.

Directing the senior most officer of the Delhi Police to submit the report in two months,the bench said the report be placed before it in a sealed cover.

In November last year,MCD had revealed that 22,853 gardeners and sweepers were its ghost employees and admitted it was an administrative lapse which has been costing the civic body a whopping Rs 17 crore every month.

Taking strong exception to MCD’s act of “concealing facts” on ghost employees during last hearing,the bench had asked the MCD to file an affidavit specifically stating the amount of salary being paid to such employees who do not exist in its office but had been drawing wages for past two decades.

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.

According to the NGO,a complaint was lodged with the Anti-corruption branch of Delhi police but no FIR has been registered.

Besides the CBI inquiry,the petitioner has also sought court’s direction for initiation of departmental inquiry against the guilty officers of MCD for their involvement in the scam.

A probe was ordered after the biometric system of attendance,introduced by the civic body in August 2008 and later extended to all MCD zones,brought out the gap in the data given by drawing and disbursing officers and the number of employees enrolled for biometric attendance.