All the departments of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD) is facing shortage of staff, amounting to almost 30 to 50 per cent, since trifurcation of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in April, 2012.
As per the report regarding the sanctioned post in each department and number of employees and officers working there placed before the Standing Committee, North MCD on Wednesday revealed that all the departments are facing staff shortage in the four groups A, B, C and D.
Department of Environment Management and Services (DEMS), that has primary responsibility of maintaining sanitation in its municipal jurisdiction, has only 16,081 group D employees who are working against a sanctioned post of 17,445 employees. Similarly, 409 group C employees are working against the sanctioned post of 447. In group B category, the department is facing acute shortage with only 11 officials as against 32 sanctioned posts. However, the department is not facing any shortage of officers at the top for three sanctioned group A posts. In the health department, out of total sanctioned posts of 7,199 only 4,878 employees and officers are working.
In another key department — education — there is shortage of staff from top to the bottom. In group A, out of sanctioned 86 officers, only 38 are currently working with the department.
In group B, 8,545 officers are working against the sanctioned post of 9,920. Out of the total sanctioned post of 12,716 in the education department around 10,500 employees and officers are currently working.
“It’s true that the civic body has shortage of staff but it cannot fill their posts due to fund crunch. Even after lesser number of employees against the sanctioned posts, salary payment remains a challenging task. The Corporation, however, recruits employees on various occasions but it cannot fill the gap overnight,” said Sanjay Goel, Additional Commissioner in the North MCD. “The Corporation is facing staff crunch due to the lackluster approach of senior officials sitting here. They (top officials) make amendments in Recruitment Rules for themselves but when matter comes to lower-level staff, they refuse to make any change. It’s only the officials’ way of working which is responsible for the staff crisis here,” said Vijay Prakash Pandey, Leader of the House.
“The issue of staff crunch should be addressed as soon as possible as people of Delhi have been suffering. The BJP-ruled MCDs had not done anything in the past nine years in this regard and their present-day concern in nothing more than an eyewash. The Corporation, in a larger interest, must take this matter seriously,” said Mukesh Goel, Leader of Opposition.