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Chandigarh mayor bats for shunting MC’s contractual staff
The mayor said outsourced employees were engaged to fill the gap created in the absence of regular sanctioned posts, but the outsourced staff is still working even after appointment of regular employees
City mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor on Wednesday wrote a letter to municipal commissioner Amit Kumar, requesting immediate rationalisation of the municipal corporation (MC) staff to cut down on expenses.
The letter came after Punjab governor and UT administrator, Gulab Chand Kataria, during MC’s General House meeting on November 23, directed MC officials to conduct department-wise analysis of manpower and gradually shunt out excessive employees.
“The administrator advised the corporation to increase its own receipts by assessing property tax of the last five years, filling up regular vacancies and stressed on stopping the engagement of employees on outsourced basis in future as double the number has been employed as opposed to their sanctioned vacancies. Since most of the funds are being spent in paying wages to them, the MC is not able to do developmental works. He directed that the civic body should rationalise the existing posts (category A, B, C and D) of each wing and the services of unnecessary employees should be retrenched in a phased manner,” Dhalor said in a letter to the MC commissioner, adding that some stringent steps are required to be taken for the corporation’s good financial health.
“I would request the MC commissioner to instruct his subordinate officers to immediately implement the advice given by the administrator and rationalise the posts as soon as possible. It is further requested that like the type test for district education officer (DEO), if the posts of sub-divisional officer (SDO), junior engineer (JE), draftsman, sanitary inspector, supervisor, fireman or any other similar posts are kept on outsourced basis, their written examination should be taken because, currently, they are being recruited only on the basis of an interview. The rules have not been followed while recruiting these employees, and even in some cases, requisite qualification was either not followed or exempted to recruit them, which is very serious,” the mayor said.
Also, outsourced employees were engaged to fill the gap created in the absence of regular sanctioned posts, but the outsourced staff is still working even after appointment of regular employees, the mayor added.
Meanwhile, MC commissioner Amit Kumar said, “We are planning a phase-wise rationalising of staff. First, we will look at the working of employees, who are above the age of 60 or have been already working above their retirement age. We are working on it.”
It is worth mentioning that as per official figures, MC’s total staff strength increased from 8,587 employees in 2023-24 to 9,748 in 2024-25, reflecting that the corporation hired 1,161 employees (mostly on contractual basis) in just seven months.
The figures came as a surprise for councillors from all parties and the mayor, who questioned, “Who are these employees and where are they working?”
