Noida authority hamstrung by staff shortage, transferred officials yet to be replaced
According to an estimate by the authority’s department of personnel, the authority faces a 40% staff shortage, meaning that four out of every 10 posts are vacant
The Noida authority is facing a shortage of staff, which, senior officials said, was crippling the smooth functioning of the autonomous industrial body. They blamed the state government for the present situation and said employees who are transferred out are not replaced by new people, thereby leaving the authority hamstrung.
On Saturday, the Uttar Pradesh industries department transferred six employees from Noida authority to other industrial bodies. But no new people were appointed in their stead, leading to a manpower shortage in the departments of Noida Metro, town planning, law office and finance, among others.
The government has also initiated action against the authority’s three senior managers who continued to work in the city despite being given their transfer orders.
According to an estimate prepared by the authority’s department of personnel, the authority faces a 40% staff shortage, which means that four out of every 10 posts are vacant. As a result, the authority is unable to deliver civic services and property related work, said officials.
“We have written to the state government requesting adequate personnel for each department. We hope that soon, we will get the required employee strength. Currently, we are managing all the work with the available hands,” said Lokesh M, chief executive officer, Noida authority.
Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Manoj Kumar Singh, who is also the state’s industrial and infrastructure development commissioner and chairman of the Noida authority, said, “Don’t worry about the transfers. The Noida authority will manage it.”
According to the personnel department, along with 882 permanent staff, the authority also has at least 2,000 contractual employees on its rolls in the sanitation, water, engineering and other departments.
The organisational structure mandates that the Noida authority must have a chief executive officer who takes all decisions along with two or thee additional CEOs, four to five officers on special duty, tehsildars, chief engineer, general managers, engineers, assistant engineers, engineers, supervisor, inspector, desk clerks, assistant clerks and assistants etc.
According to the authority, in all departments such as horticulture, water, engineering, civil, group housing, urban town planning, electrical and technical auditing, among others, there is a 40% staff shortage at the level of general manager, engineer, AE, JE, clerk, horticulture inspector, supervisor and peon, which is affecting the routine work, said officials.
As per the rules, the authority does not have the mandate to recruit staff on a permanent or contractual basis -- this can only be done by the Uttar Pradesh government.
There were four general managers in property, commercial department, housing and IT department in the authority till 2015-16. But all four got retired and now there is no general manager in the authority for clerical work and deputy general managers are helping to deliver services. Earlier there were four deputy directors in the horticulture department. But now the horticulture department is left with only two deputy directors, who support the horticulture’s director in maintaining the city’s parks.
There is only one tehsildar against the requirement of eight to handle village land works leading to a huge backlog. There is no full time chief engineer (general manager) for civil department and deputy general manager has taken charge to take care of development and maintenance of roads, parks, drains and other works. There is only one town planner left against the requirement of 10 and that one person was also recently transferred out, said officials.
“Owing to the staff shortage, we fail to promptly address grievances of the public at times. The state government must provide us with the required staff at the earliest for quality services in the city,” said a Noida authority official, requesting anonymity.