Urban News

Indian Express 27.11.2009

MCD ‘ghost’ workers will have to return salary: Mayor

A day after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) acknowledged that the civic body has been paying salaries worth Rs 17 crore per month to over 22,000 ‘ghost employees’, Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain has said all offenders, once identified, will have to “return” the money that they have drawn from the MCD in the form of salaries without putting in any work.

Sain said he had discussed the matter with Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna and decided that not only will the offenders face penal action but the amount lost to pay salaries will also be recovered from them.

A 24-page report submitted by MCD Commissioner K S Mehra has already been sent to Raj Niwas, and a meeting with L-G Khanna will take place this week for further discussion on the action MCD must take now, Sain added.

“One thing that has been decided is that a time-bound CBI inquiry will be initiated in the matter and all those found guilty must return whatever amount has been paid to them,” Sain said. “How offenders will return an amount as high as Rs 204 crore for a year is not the Corporation’s worry — it is the government’s money and must be returned.”

The MCD House is, meanwhile, witnessing a difference of opinion over the matter, with Leader of the House Subhash Arya saying on Thursday that the Corporation must wait before initiating a CBI inquiry. Arya said the MCD should first order a probe by its own Vigilance department and a subsequent report by the commissioner within a month. “If the Commissioner fails to submit the detailed report on the offenders etc, the CBI should be roped in,” Arya said.

The internal inquiry however, leaves room for doubt, feel the Mayor and many leaders of the MCD opposition. “If our own officers probe a scandal created by some Corporation officials, there are chances that internal pressures might result in a biased report,” Mayor Sain confirmed.

The Mayor has ordered that the disbursing of salaries to all missing employees be stopped with immediate affect. Although the report was submitted by the Commissioner on Wednesday evening, the agency is yet to identify the 22,853 ‘ghost employees’ and find out details like names, designations, work tenure and bank records of the offenders and verify whether they have actually ever worked for the MCD.

The agency will also investigate who helped in opening salary accounts for these employees even after the Electronic Clearance System (ECS) was initiated in 2008. Under the ECS, a bank account can only be opened by furnishing an ID proof and a confirmation from his workplace. For now, the MCD has decided that only the 1,04,241 employees registered in the biometric system and physically reporting for work will be paid salaries till the investigation is complete.

The Hindu 26.11.2009

52 town panchayats to get municipal council status

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: As many as 52 town panchayats in the State are to be upgraded into town municipal councils (TMCs).

Disclosing this to presspersons in Bangalore on Tuesday, Municipal Administration Minister Balachandra Jarkiholi said the issue would be taken up before the State Cabinet for its clearance. They are to being upgraded on the basis of increase in population. The 52 town panchayats would benefit as change in the status would also increase their annual allocation from the present Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 5 crore. Besides, the number of wards would also increase from 15 to 20. Similarly, Tumkur City Municipal Council would get city corporation status, he said. However, the proposal to upgrade about 400 village panchayats into town panchayats would not be considered now as elections were to be held for village panchayats in January 2010, he said. These panchayats may have to wait till the next census to get the new status.

The process of direct recruitment of about 800 personnel for the municipal bodies, which had begun recently, was expected to be completed by January 2010. The posts for which recruitments were being held included those of engineers, accountants, stenographers and drivers. The Minister said his department had now made it mandatory for the urban local bodies to entrust the task of solid waste management to the Stree Shakti self-help groups. A notification had been issued to this effect on September 7.

The SHGs would collect a nominal amount from each of the houses for garbage disposal. They would convert the garbage into manure which would be diverted to the market. Each of the wards in the urban local bodies would require one to two SHGs for handling the garbage, he said.