NAGPUR: In another
largesse to private water operator Orange City Water Limited (OCWL),
Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has promised to start paying the
salaries of 149 of its staffers working with OCWL, thus increasing
financial loss from water works by over Rs 45 lakh per month. Until
February 1, the expenses of staffers were being paid by OCWL since they
were working for it.

NMC sources say 502 employees were working
in the water works department when the entire operation and maintenance
of water works was handed over to OCWL on March 1, 2012. All these
employees were transferred to Nagpur Environmental Services Limited
(NESL), NMC’s special purpose vehicle to monitor water works on that
day. According to NMC’s agreement with OCWL, the latter was bearing the
cost of all employees.

As per the agreement, the employee mobilization period was set as four
months, during which NMC employees worked for OCWL to assist its
employees in operation and maintenance of water works. Within three
months of this, the operator was to prepare a list and submit offers to
the NMC if it wished to take any employees on its rolls. Then, a
six-month period was fixed for employees and the operator to change the
decisions they had made. After this, another two-month period was
provided to effect the final changes.

Officiating executive
engineer Azizur Rehman told TOI the operator has not given employment
offers to any NMC employee till date. “NMC transferred 180 of the total
502 employees from water works to other departments in August 2012. The
operator was paying for the remaining 322 employees till February 1,
2013. Then, the operator selected 99 employees and offered to keep
paying their expenses, while not giving them offer of employment.”

So, NMC has been bearing the expenses of remaining 223 employees from
February 1. Now, there is a proposal to transfer 47 of these employees
to the head office. “The remaining 149 employees will continue to work
with NESL to ensure there are no water supply problems during the
summer. NMC will bear the expenses of these employees,” Rehman said.

NMC’s decision has raised many eyebrows. The expenses of these 149
employees come to over Rs 45 lakh per month. Except a monitoring team,
NMC should have transferred all employees to other departments, since it
is already facing a staff crunch. As far as water works is concerned,
it is the responsibility of the operator to ensure smooth functioning or
bear expenses if it requires assistance from NMC employees.

NMC is already incurring loss of crores in the water works. Details in
the budget reveal NMC is paying Rs 58 crore per year for electricity, Rs
15 crore per year for raw water and Rs 12 crore per year for water
tankers. NMC is also bearing expense of Rs 6.61 crore for electrical
works at Kanhan plant. Besides, NMC is also maintaining wells and
erecting new borewells.