MC processing your water bills without agreement with firm concerned
The municipal corporation has failed to renew its agreement with the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), a government agency, for processing of water bills and master files of the civic body, eight months after the contract expired in February 2014.
The municipal corporation has failed to renew its agreement with the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), a government agency, for processing of water bills and master files of the civic body, eight months after the contract expired in February 2014.
The public health department has signed the agreement in February 2011 for three years and has claimed that it forgot to renew the same. The agency has hence working without the renewal of the agreement since.
On October 25, however, the public health department placed the agenda before the members at a Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) meeting, but members objected to it and raised questions over delay.
F& CC member Saurabh Joshi said, “I found it very strange that the agenda was brought after a hiatus of 8 months and that too suddenly. The MC had proposed increase in rates and then wanted approval of the same. We objected to it and asked them to bring a detailed agenda in this regard.”
When questioned on the reasons for the non-signing of the agreement in February, public health department executive engineer Jaspal Singh said, “There was no reason for delay.”
NIELIT director could not be contacted in spite of repeated attempts.
NIELIT had run into controversy last year
The NIELIT had run into controversy after gross violations were found in the appointment of 25 clerks on contract for six months. The clerks had joined office in May last year. The civic body appointed the said clerks through NIELIT, Chandigarh, in the pay scale of Rs 22,300 per month. The violation was in the manner of the appointment and the MC lending its name to the process.
Interestingly, the advertisement for the said posts was issued by the NIELIT on February 10, 2013, without mentioning mandatory information such as age limit, reserved posts and salary package. The advertisement did not even mention the agency for which the recruitments were being made.
The agency completed the recruitment process within eight days and selected 25 candidates, to whom the civic body issued appointment letters in violations of the norms. After the issue was raked up in the House, the MC immediately withdrew the appointment letters and told NIELIT to give them the appointment letters instead, which they did and the candidates joined.
