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Idle Chandigarh Housing Board engineers drawing crores despite no project
Causing significant financial strain on Chandigarh admn despite no workload since 2016, when the board last rolled out a housing project
It has been seven years since the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) last successfully rolled out a housing scheme.
After offering 200 two-bedroom flats in Sector 51 for ₹69 lakh each in 2016, the board has failed to take any project to completion ever since, raising eyebrows over its utility.
Yet its 100-strong engineers’ workforce continues to cost the UT administration crores annually, with a cumulative monthly salary bill of around ₹1 crore.
On the other hand, ironically, the administration’s own engineering department is reeling under severe shortage of engineers, impacting its projects.
In the absence of five executive engineers, as a recourse, sub-divisional engineers have been tasked with additional charges. Around eight other executive engineers are already handling multiple additional charges.
UT chief engineer CB Ojha said, “The process to fill the posts was already underway.”
Absurdly, CHB, with no engineering work on its plate, has six full-time executive engineers and two superintending engineers.
Latest CHB project put on hold in August
Most recently, in August, UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit had put on hold CHB’s ambitious Sector 53 general housing scheme. With even the general housing scheme at IT Park stuck in environmental wrangles, the board currently has no major venture in the works
But the same month, the board hired 38 additional engineers, architects and draftsmen, who were handed appointment letters by Purohit himself.
The then UT adviser-cum-CHB chairman Dharam Pal had then stated that the services of the CHB engineers could always be used in the municipal corporation, UT administration or any other organisation where there were no engineering wings. But, nearly four months later, the CHB engineers continue to remain idle.
CHB chief executive officer (CEO) Ajay Chagti admitted that there had been no housing project since 2016, but they will take up the staffing matter in the next board meeting.
Reflecting on past experiences, Puranjit Singh, a former chief engineer of CHB, recalled a precedent set in the early 1990s.
During a period of two years marked by limited assignments, the CHB engineers were deployed at PGIMER as well as other organisations lacking engineering divisions. This strategic manoeuvre served to affirm their roles and validate their remuneration, Singh reminisced.
CHB, an undertaking of the UT administration, was established in 1976, with the primary objective of providing reasonably priced and good quality housing for individuals lacking shelter within the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
As of March 2019, the board had completed the construction of a total of 67,565 houses across various categories, including rehabilitation schemes.
