Short-staffed, poorly maintained: Despite wedding uptick, MCD halls remain vacant

According to the data from the three civic bodies, overall 79.3% posts of the total 1,288 staff needed to run the 293 community halls across Delhi are vacant.

An acute staff crunch in the community services department of the three municipal corporations has ensured that most of the centres run by the civic bodies where public functions and weddings are organised stay vacant despite a large number of marriage events taking place in the capital.

A senior municipal official said that the human resource crunch has also been highlighted in the audit of community hall operations. (HT Photo)

According to the data from the three civic bodies, overall 79.3% posts of the total 1,288 staff needed to run the 293 community halls across Delhi are vacant. The community workers maintain these facilities and provide sanitation and security services. However, during the current wedding season in the city, when most of the venues were booked, the municipal community halls stayed vacant despite being much cheaper than other options, officials aware of the matter said.

According to an internal report compiled by the civic bodies, a copy of which has been seen by HT, shows that the South Delhi Municipal Corporation operates 97 community halls and has a shortfall of 69.9% staff shortfall, the North Delhi civic body runs 125 halls and has 86.2% posts vacant and the East civic body has 71 community centres and has a shortfall of 71.7% workers.

The last pre-pandemic audit of facilities under South MCD found that 39 halls were booked for less than 10 days in a year, 48 were booked for 11 to 50 days in a year and 15 units were used for 51 to 100 days. Only two units were used for 101 to 150 days while bookings for only two went above 150 days out of 365 days even in the pre-pandemic period. “No efforts were ever made by the department to ascertain the reasons for such a poor occupancy, though in Delhi there was continuous demand for built up space for organizing various events,” the report said.

The report cited inadequate arrangements for security and sanitation, no parking, ill-maintained wash rooms and toilets, missing kitchens fixtures, and non-functional lights as reasons for poor occupancy of municipal community centres.