Official says outsourced MCG staff aiding illegal activities

MCG officials said that in the light of the letter, dated January 15, around 25 outsourced employees are now under the scanner.

Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) joint commissioner Vivek Kalia has sent a letter to MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav recommending removing outsourced staffers enforcement wing citing “utter failure in discharging their duties”.

The MCG office in Gurugram Sector 34 Info City. The joint commissioner has recommended removing those outsourced employees who have more than year’s work experience. (HT File)

MCG officials said that in the light of the letter, dated January 15, around 25 outsourced employees are now under the scanner. The average strength of the enforcement wing is 10 permanent employees and 25 outsourced employees.

“It has been found that a number of illegal colonies have sprung up and unauthorised commercial activities are being carried out at many places across the city. I am compiling a detailed report which will list the failures of the enforcement wing’s outsourced employees in carrying out orders of sealing or demolishing on a case-to-case basis,” Kalia said.

Kalia said that in his letter to the commissioner, he has recommended removing those outsourced employees who have more than a year’s work experience and that show-cause notices may also be served to the outsourced assistant engineers and executive engineers who failed to lead their team in carrying out the directions.

He added that despite repeated reminders, no proper records were kept of the sealed and demolished buildings, and neither was there a record of the updated status of either of the two actions taken. He said that there is “absence of standard procedure”.

Officials said that the letter comes in the background of the enforcement wing officials failing to carry out sealing or demolition drives, especially in the 300-metre restricted area around the IAF (Indian Air Force) ammunition depot in Sector 14, despite repeated reminders. They said that the agency also has over 100 pending complaints from the CM’s Window that have not been addressed.

As per MCG records, there are 4,156 illegally constructed properties in the 300-metre restricted area around IAF ammunition depot, including 854 commercial buildings, 3,016 residential buildings and 241 mixed land use buildings.

Another observation made by Kalia was that due to frequent transfers of MCG’s permanent employees, such as executive engineers and assistant engineers, there was “lack of ownership” on issues at hand and the outsourced staff under these employees, who have been around for years, failed to keep a check on illegal constructions.

“Most of the outsourced employees have been at their post for around six to seven years. They have greater knowledge of the illegal activities being carried out across the city. Despite repeated directions, they have failed to deliver and hence, were found accountable for failing to curb illegal activities,” Kalia said.

MCG officials said that one of the chief reasons that prompted Kalia to recommend the removal of said outsourced employees was that they had allegedly leaked information to Sadar Bazar shopkeepers, who, since they had knowledge of the drive on December 8, had prevented MCG officials from sealing their establishments, and the matter needed police intervention.