The Times of India        03.11.2014 

Chennai civic disaster, corporation lacks experts

CHENNAI:
Bustling roads cave in without warning, neighbourhoods are flooded
every time it rains, and encroached footpaths force pedestrians to leg
it along broken and waterlogged roads. The city has turned into a civic
disaster and Corporation of Chennai has had its epiphany: It has awoken
to the fact that it lacks expertise.

Corporation
officials said the spate of problems that accompanied the monsoon has
made them aware of the need do create positions for fulltime
professionals. These include posts for urban planners and experts in
finance, transport, bridges and communication officers. It is also
planning to form an IT team.

To be able to recruit
professionals, the corporation may have to retrench or reassign
employees. Every department of the civic body has prepared a list
identifying mistakes in organisational structure and redundant jobs that
can that be eliminated.

Senior corporation officials are
looking to increase the workforce at the top level and shave it at the
bottom and will seek the government’s approval to introduce more senior
posts in the hope that the professionals they hire will come up with the
ideas they so sorely need to keep pace with the development of the
city.

“We have few professional employees compared to the
city’s population,” a senior corporation official said. “City
municipalities in the West have a more professionals and they are
responsible for smaller populations. We need to expand, particularly at
the top level.”

“We have a town planner but not an urban
planner. We have no financial experts to advise us on optimal
expenditure or how to raise capital. If we want exceptional roads, we
need a transport planner,” he said.

He said the civic body
needs to create such senior positions for professionals just like
private companies. “Every department has come up with a wish list, but
we will be able to finalise the posts and make a representation to the
government only after we decide how to meet the additional expenditure
that an increase in professional recruits would involve.”

Engineers of the civic body are currently undergoing a six month
certified course designed by Institute for Transport and Development
Policy (ITDP) and Anna University. Many corporation officials say they
are forced to handle multiple portfolios and are unable to focus on
routine work. The superintending engineer of bus routes in the roads
department, for instance, is also in charge of bridges, solid waste
management, public health and mechanical engineering.

The
corporation has taken up a Rs 1,500 crore project to lay roads build
footpaths in the city but doesn’t have a dedicated superintending
engineer for most roads. The lack of an engineer for the solid waste
management department, about which there are the most complaints, and
the bridges department, which is planning 24 flyovers, is also sources
of concern.