Staff shortage hits civic body’s work on project

Staff shortage might soon affect the pace of street lighting upgradation work being carried out by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for the Commonwealth Games.

Staff shortage might soon affect the pace of street lighting upgradation work being carried out by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for the Commonwealth Games.

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In February, the engineering wing of the civic agency had requested for creation of 56 additional posts of different categories in its electrical wing. But till now the civic agency has not taken any action.

The reason being cited is that Games related works are a “temporary project” and the MCD is financially not strong enough to “bear additional burden by deploying more staff”.

“The electrical wing of the civic body is understaffed and to complete the streetlighting upgradation work we need more staff. The workload has also increased due to the Commonwealth Games,” said a senior officer from the engineering department.

“Other agencies have also earmarked exclusive staff for completing CWG related work on time.”

The deputy chief accountant of the civic agency had suggested that posts should be created on temporary basis and abolished after the conclusion of the Commonwealth Games.

Deep Mathur, the director of MCD’s press and information department, said, “Deploying extra staff is an internal matter. But we are sure that our work is not going to suffer at all.”

The civic agency has competed phase I of installation of streetlights, covering 100 kilometre. Important roads leading to the Games venue, airport, hotels and stations among others are primarily being lit.

The MCD has a budget of around Rs 200 crore, which it plans to spend on streetlighting.