Shimla MC reels under acute shortage of staff
Subhash Rajta
Shimla, June 10
The Shimla Municipal Corporation is running on a skeletal staff. One of the oldest corporations in the country has just one Executive Engineer (XEN), one Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) and just three sanitary inspectors to take care of 41 wards having a population of around 2.5 lakh.
Dwindling numbers
- Staff shortage as the cadre strength dates back to 1984
- Only one XEN working against two sanctioned posts
- Three sanctioned posts of SDO but two vacant
- Three sanitary inspectors against nine sanctioned posts
Quick action must
The government is deliberately not filling vacancies, as it wants to privatise all services. — Sanjay Chauhan, Former mayor
“The MC is too short staffed to carry out its functions in the best possible manner. Most of the staff is as per the cadre strength of 1984 when Shimla’s population was just 70,000. Now, the population has grown nearly four times, but the cadre strength has not been revised much,” says former Mayor Sanjay Chauhan.
“With just a few officers, it’s difficult to carry out and supervise the work going on within the MC limits. How could three sanitary inspectors take care of 41 wards?” asks an MC official. “Besides, there are several Smart City and AMRUT Mission projects going on in the city. How will one XEN and an SDO keep tabs on all these projects,” he adds.
In the MC’s Health and Road and Building departments, the staff shortage runs into hundreds.
MC Commissioner Ashish Kohli says that efforts are being made to fill some vacancies. “We are hopeful of getting six sanitary inspectors and 20 Junior Office Assistants shortly. The Staff Selection Commission has already conducted tests for these positions,” he adds. — TNS
