Cash-return order to Darjeeling workers The employee union said there was no written order directing the employees to return the money

Vivek Chhetri, TT, 3  March 2020, Darjeeling: Confusion has gripped Darjeeling municipality after some employees of the civic body allegedly asked 200 workers to return Rs 7,000 that had been credited to their bank accounts.

Two-hundred conservancy workers of the civic body had recently received Rs 7,776 for work undertaken to prevent vector-borne disease in the civic area.

Dipika Gurung, secretary, Darjeeling Municipality Employees Union, said: “A sum of Rs 7,776 was credited to the bank accounts of 200 workers of the civic body. However, some supervisors (munshi) are telling the workers to return Rs 7,000. This is strange as they have received the amount for undertaking work.”

One of the employees, Ram Kumar Thakuri, said he had already returned the amount.

The employee union said there was no written order directing the employees to return the money.

“We also enquired with some officials of the municipality to ascertain if there was any written official directive asking employees to return the money that has been credited in their account. The officials replied in the negative,” said Gurung.

An official of the civic body admitted that they had asked supervisors to collect Rs 7,000.

“This is because 398 employees were employed during the exercise. However, as per the norms, only six employees can be deployed in each ward. Hence, only 200 received the amount while an equal number of staff members were denied this payment,” the official said.

There are 32 wards under Darjeeling municipality.

“If we do not pay the rest of the employees, there would be another problem,” said the official.

As an “informal arrangement”, some civic officials had apparently asked the supervision to collect the amount and equally distribute among all the 398 employees.

When pointed that such an act would probably violate financial norms, the official said: “We were trying our best to ensure all receive an equal amount. If the workers adjust among themselves we have nothing to say or else we can do nothing,” he added.

The municipal authoritiesmaintain that it was difficult to employ only 200 employees.

“Workers are divided into sectors and they work in their own area. This is why we had to employ all workers. It would also be difficult to ask one worker to work and tell the other worker not to work,” an official said.

Sources maintain that Mayuri Vasu, administrator of the civic body, had directed the Darjeeling municipality secretary and finance officer to conduct a hearing on the issue on Tuesday.