The Hindu 08.04.2010
No takers for corporation secretary post
Staff Reporter
| IAS officers reluctant to work for the civic body; post of Health Officer lying vacant |
Corporation experiencing shortage of qualified medical graduates
State government requested to depute senior officials if IAS officers are not available
KOCHI: The reluctance of IAS and medical officers to join Kochi Corporation has creating a crisis-like situation for the civic administration.
No officials from the All India service are willing to join the Kochi Corporation as its secretary due to reasons best known to them. Mini Antony was the first IAS officer to join the civic body as its secretary followed by P.G. Thomas. After Mr. Thomas retired from the service, a young civil servant was posted as the secretary.
However, he didn’t assume the office and joined the service in some other department. The post of the secretary had been lying vacant for nearly two months.
The civic authorities had been demanding that an IAS official should be posted as its secretary considering the nature of the official responsibilities including the liaison with various government departments and presenting its development projects before central authorities including the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) and foreign agencies. The corporation council had also passed several resolutions in the past urging the State government to depute IAS officers to Kochi.
Government informed
“It seems that IAS officers are reluctant to join as the secretary of the corporation and the issue has been brought to the notice of the State government,” said Mercy Williams, Kochi Corporation.
“We have requested the State government to depute senior officials if IAS officers are not available”, Ms. Williams said.
Doctors unavailable
The shortage of qualified medical graduates in the municipal service for filling the vacancy of Health Officer is another area of concern for the civic body.
The corporation has intensified its search for a qualified hand to fill the vacancy after Dr. C.G. Elizabeth, Health officer, who retired from service on March 31. Considering the public health issues including the mosquito menace, Kochi needs either a medical graduate or a person with public health administration background to fill the post, Ms. Williams said. One cannot keep the vacancy of the Health Officer open for indefinite period in a city like Kochi. Hence, a senior official from the health wing has been given the charge on a temporary basis, she said.
Vacancies
The process of filling up the vacancies in various departments following the retirement of a large number of officials on March 31 has started, she said. Barring a few, most of the vacancies have been filled and the process is expected to be complete soon, she said.
The shortage of officials had invited the criticism of the Opposition councillors who feared that implementation of various works would be affected.
