Indian Express 27.09.2010
Performance suffers as temporary heads crowd key municipal posts
Stuti Shukla Tags : The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, BMC, project Posted: Mon Sep 27 2010, 01:26 hrs
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country’s richest civic body that is handling many mega infrastructure projects, is facing an acute shortage of qualified officials for key jobs at the top. With important posts being held as additional charge by officials, the performance of various departments has been hit.
Estimates suggest that about one-third of posts in Grade 1, including administrative and the highest technical posts, are either being held by officials made temporarily ‘in-charge’ or have been given to officials who already have charge of another portfolio. Grade 1 jobs include those of chief engineers and deputy chief engineers of various departments, deputy municipal commissioners, assistant municipal commissioners, additional commissioners and the municipal commissioner.
Additional Municipal Commissioner AK Singh, who handles the BMC’s general administration, said, “After the reservation rules came into effect a part of all government jobs, including top level jobs, had to be reserved for candidates from backward classes. This is why many a times we do not find a person from this background and we cannot officially appoint someone from the general category as the appointment will then become illegal. Another reason is the fulfillment of qualifying service period. A deputy chief engineer has to hold that position for two years at least to get promoted to the post of chief engineer,” said Singh.
Appointment of certain deputy municipal commissioners requires the approval of the state government. For example, DMC for improvements committee, in-charge of taking all land-use related decisions in the city, requires the state government sanction that has still not come. The post is being held by Rajendra Vale, who is also holding the office of DMC (general administration), for over a year. Certain posts such as that of DMC (environment and waste management) have not had an official for over six months. At present the post is being handled by the Director of Engineering Service and Projects who already overlooks a number of other civic departments. Dinesh Gondaliya, DMC (special engineering) in charge of water supply in the city, was recently handed over an additional charge of sewerage operations (SO) after the DMC in charge of SO retired and no official was deemed competent enough for the job. Singh agreed work gets hit with officials handling a number of portfolios. “There is some effect definitely on the quality of work as one single official has to sanction most work and more the number of files he has to clear, the less time he will spend studying one file,” said Singh
