Haryana minister pulls up Gurugram civic staff for being late, absent from work

All the 11 municipal corporations in Haryana come under the ambit of the ULB. Though private companies are allowed to work with only 50% staff due to the rising Covid-19 cases, emergency or essential government offices, such as the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), are still operating with full capacity

Newly appointed minister for urban local bodies (ULB) Kamal Gupta asked the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) to ask the employees, who were either found absent or came late to office during a surprise inspection on Wednesday, to submit a written application explaining the same.

Urban local bodies minister Kamal Gupta (second from right) during the surprise inspection at the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram’s main office in Sector 34 on Wednesday. (Sourced)

Gupta conducted a surprise inspection at the MCG’s main office in Sector 34 on Wednesday morning and found at least 20 civic officials absent while around a dozen reported late to work. It was also Gupta’s first visit to Gurugram after assuming charge as the ULB minister.

“Ever since taking charge, I have been conducting surprise inspections across civic bodies in the state to improve their services and facilities. I visited the MCG office on Wednesday morning and found that some MCG workers were absent, and a few were coming late to the office. After taking an explanation from each of them, we will accordingly take action,” said Gupta during an interaction with the press at the John Hall in Civil Lines.

Just two days after assuming charge as ULB minister, Gupta, on December 31 last year, conducted a surprise inspection at the Panchkula Municipal Corporation and found more than 80% of the workers absent. On the same day, Gupta held a meeting with the commissioner of all the 11 municipal corporations.

Following this meeting, MCG commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja, on January 3, directed all the civic staff to report to their respective offices by 9am and maintain punctuality among other such directions.

According to MCG officials, Gupta reached the MCG office at exactly 9am and checked the attendance registers of the accounts branch, audit, technical, planning branch as well as the offices of senior MCG officials located on the second and third floor of the building. Subsequently, he directed the officials to keep the attendance register and movement files updated.

Each MCG wing has its own movement file, in which employees have to fill out the location and the scope of civic work they are covering if they leave office during work hours.

Around 9.30am on Wednesday, additional municipal commissioner Rohtash Bishnoi and MCG joint commissioner Sumit Kumar also conducted surprise inspections at the municipal offices in Sector 34 and Civil Lines respectively.

Bishnoi found at least 51 employees were not in office while Kumar found at least 10 such staff. Showcause notices have been issued to all the 61 employees.

At both the offices, movement files were also not found. “The ULB minister conducted a surprise inspection at the MCG office and directed officials to come to office on time, expedite clearing of files, resolve the grievances of public with honesty and punctuality. An investigation against employees who were absent or came late to office has also been initiated,” said SS Rohilla, public relations officer (PRO), MCG.

It is not the first time that a ULB minister has conducted a surprise inspection at the MCG office. In June last year,the then ULB minister, Anil Vij, had suspended two MCG sub-divisional officers (SDOs) for being absent among other such directions.