India, Dec. 12 -- As many as 361 sanitation workers listed on the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) payroll are "untraceable" on the ground, according to the cross-verification of their attendance by the urban local body (ULB) on December 5, the MCG said on Thursday.

According to the corporation, it pays salaries to 4,904 sanitation workers. However, when their ward-wise deployment was examined, the number reflected only 4,543 workers, leaving 361 employees unaccounted for.

While the findings have prompted response from local councillors, who called it a "massive irregularity", the additional municipal commissioner maintained that salaries were issued strictly as per attendance.

Officials privy to the matter claimed that over 120...