The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will revise the salaries of around 4,000 Multi-Tasking Staff employees in its Public Health department to a minimum of Rs.18,000 per month, plus variable Dearness Allowance, under the principle of equal pay for equal work.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced the decision on Friday, saying the revised payments would be credited directly to the workers’ bank accounts. The revision will cost the civic body around Rs.52 crore annually, Mayor Pravesh Wahi said at a felicitation event at the MCD headquarters.
The employees were recruited during the dengue outbreak in Delhi in 1996 and have since worked in public health activities, including door-to-door outreach, according to the report by Millennium Post – Delhi. MCD Commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar said the posts were created during the 1997 dengue outbreak and were later redesignated as Multi-Tasking Staff positions in the Public Health department.
The revised pay will be based on the minimum of Level 1 of the pay matrix. The payment structure will also include variable Dearness Allowance, although the supplied report does not specify the applicable rate or the date from which the revised salaries will take effect.
Addressing the employees at the Kedarnath Sahni Auditorium, Gupta said the decision recognised nearly three decades of service by workers who had contributed to public health in Delhi. She also said the government was committed to protecting the dignity and welfare of employees working on the ground, and that better remuneration and job-related security would improve their morale.
Wahi said the salary revision was approved after the Delhi government was informed about its annual financial implications. The announcement places a recurring expenditure commitment on the civic body at a time when the MCD is also planning additional recruitment for sanitation services.
The Mayor announced plans to recruit 2,500 sanitation workers to improve cleanliness across Delhi, particularly in markets, ahead of Diwali. The report did not provide details on the recruitment schedule, the proposed employment terms or the locations where the additional workers will be deployed.
Together, the two announcements concern the workforce responsible for routine public-health and cleanliness functions in the capital. The MTS employees covered by the pay revision have been associated with field-level outreach since the dengue outbreaks of the 1990s, while the proposed sanitation recruitment is intended to strengthen cleanliness operations in markets and other areas.
The immediate implementation of the revised salary will depend on the MCD’s administrative process for crediting the payments and applying the Level 1 pay matrix with variable Dearness Allowance. No further implementation timeline was specified in the supplied announcement.
