The Times of India              04.06.2013

Kolkata Municipal Corporation to rejig staff structure to improve performance

KOLKATA: The KMC is set to go through a thorough restructuring of its functions and reorganization of its staff members in a bid to improve and optimize manpower usage and performance.

The reorganization, proposed for the first time in the corporation, will be preceded by extensive suggestions and proposals.

KMC has set up a one-man committee, led by retired IAS officer Bikash Chandra Basu, for review and suggestions on reorganization and restructuring of functions and staff pattern of various departments. The committee will submit its report in two months.

"It is time that the corporation had a scientific distribution of the workload to improve its services. The committee has been set up for the sole purpose of better performance. We shall follow its recommendations and implement them as soon as possible," said mayor Sovan Chatterjee on Monday.

He added said the KMC has a large number of staff covering a gamut of roles.

"All these staff members have been assigned haphazardly, without finding out whether they are actually needed," said the mayor.

The committee's scope include studying the existing pattern of functions of the departments along with the sanctioned strength, reviewing the functions and suggest the reorganization and restructuring, identifying the departments with potential to decentralize at the borough level to provide service at the basic level and augment revenue.

As the restructuring process begins, KMC has started the groundwork for reorganizing departments like information technology and environment. Other departments which will undergo a sea change include health, water supply, car-parking and revenue, said sources.