Kharar civic body gets seventh Executive Officer in two years

An unprecedented game of musical chairs is being played out at the Kharar Municipal Council for the past two years. More than seven Executive Officers — the incharge of the civic body — have been changed here much to the mirth of MC employees. Residents here complain that the civic body is in a disarray and frequent change of EO is just a reflection of that.

Ravi Kumar took over the charge of Kharar MC Executive Officer replacing incumbent Ravneet Singh today. Ravi Kumar is the seventh EO to take charge at the struggling civic body since February 27, 2023. Gurdeep Singh, Ashok Pathria, Bhupinder Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Manvir Singh Gill and Ravneet Singh have held the position during this period. Interestingly, Gurdeep Singh held the post twice — for three months and one month — in 2023. Ashok Pathria remained on the post just for four days in May 2023. His successor, Bhupinder Singh spent a little more than a month before being replaced by Sukhdev Singh in August 2023.

“This year alone three EOs have been changed even as residents continue to suffer because of piles of garbage on roads and blocked sewers,” said Mahendra Singh, a Mundi Kharar resident.

The frequent change of EO has become a matter of memes on local social media groups. “It is anybody’s guess why EOs are being changed frequently. The Kharar MC is a den of corruption. You know when and why officers come and go,” said a councillor.

It is not only EO who gets changed frequently, tehsildars in Kharar, too, witness same fate. “Recently, a tehsildar was transferred due to reported differences with Kharar MLA Anmol Gagan Maan,” said another councillor.

On September 7, 2024, the MLA had warned the EOs and tehsildars in the Kharar subdivision to stop “corrupt” practices, simultaneously cautioning the residents that her name was being misused by them to extort bribe from people.