Nearly 2,000 senior civic officials, from deputy municipal commissioners to chief engineers, were surprised to see a lesser-than-usual amount in their July paycheck. When they dived deep to find out the reason for the salary cut, they were stunned. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, said sources, has punished the senior babus for sitting on the leave applications of their juniors for over two weeks. The senior officials have lost nearly 10% of their last pay, they said. "They came running to check with the general administration department about the loss in pay. They were told that they had delayed or not acted on the leave application from their own staff," said a civic official. ACTION TO CONTINUE Sources in BMC said the action against errant officials will continue as per civic chief’s order Few officials said the delay was unintentional as they had to make alternate arrangements A senior official from the solid waste management department, who also faced a salary cut, said he was unaware of the exact reason. "Sometimes there were delays in approving applications, but that was unintentional," said the official. He also said they hold on to leave applications at times as they have to make alternate human resource arrangements. According to the corporation's administration department, many junior staffers had applied for leave and kept waiting for approval. "There were cases where leave was neither approved nor rejected. Seniors were sitting idle on leave applications," said a senior official from the department. This had resulted in many complaints. Sources said salaries of those seniors were deducted who were dragging their feet on leave applications for more than two weeks. "There is no exact number, but around 2,000 seniors saw a salary cut," said the official. They said civic chief Praveen Pardeshi has asked them to go ahead with the cut every month. Senior officials from solid waste management, stormwater drain, and market departments were the worst hit, they said. "The maximum salary cut was seen in departments where the number of employees is high," said an official. He added that the IT department, which has a small staff also saw pending leave applications

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