Mayor says no problem in disbursing pensions, salaries of employees

Kolkata: Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim has assured that there will be no problem in disbursing pensions and salaries of employees of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, irrespective of the fact that the civic body is facing a huge financial crisis, all because of the Covid pandemic situation.

A fake notice was circulated within the KMC on Thursday evening that read "Payments of Pension and Pensionary benefits (to the retired employees who have been superannuated from September 2021) are not currently released due to crisis of fund."

However, there was neither any logo nor signature of any senior official in the notice which was enough to raise suspicion that it was fake.

"It was a false notice and might have been circulated for any malafide intention. A section of the media took photographs of the notice and made news, which is unfortunate. The notice was removed within a short time after it was photographed. I have asked the Commissioner of KMC to conduct a thorough investigation. The offender will not be spared," Mayor Firhad Hakim said on Friday after the monthly meeting at the Town Hall.

The Mayor said the KMC is facing a financial burden to the tune of Rs 1000 crore because it had to comply with the recommendations of the Pay Commission.

"We are ushering in financial discipline by restricting the use of vehicles thereby cutting down fuel cost and not putting our employees in overtime duties. We have also simplified the payment of tax and have started online mode in various services for earning revenue," Hakim said.

The KMC has initiated the process of putting up display boards declaring defaulters in front of industrial establishments whose tax payments are pending for a long time. "We have witnessed that some industrial establishments are deliberately not coughing up tax and several crores are pending in more than one big establishment. If they continue to evade taxes, then legal proceedings will be initiated for attaching such properties," Hakim said.

In a recent meeting with the Assessment Department, Hakim has instructed that no land in the city should remain non-assessed.

BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh slammed the KMC for such a notice. "Today they have stopped pension and in the days to come, salaries will be stopped," Ghosh said.