BHOPAL MUNICIPAL Corporation (BMC) is a unique service provider. It has not only outsourced over 50 of its employees, the corporation is paying them a salary too. But the service is not for commoners. It is restricted to VIPs including the Chief Minister, ministers, an MLA, IAS officers and, of course, big guns in the BMC.
When 50 employees of the BMC garden section are engaged either in tending to personal gardens or attending to other orderly duties, they are not supposed to perform. It is no surprise that the corporation’s own gardens are in a shambles.
BMC staff serve the Chief Minister’s residence, though providing private staff to CM’s residence is the responsibility of State Government agencies.
Ministers Babulal Gaur, Jayant Malaiya and MLA Uma Shankar Gupta are other beneficiaries of the BMC’s ‘free service’ as BMC officials are also posted as their personal staff.
A BMC sanitary inspector Sumandhar Sharma is posted as Gaur’s personal staffer and a BMC OSD Rajiv Nigam is working as Malaiya’s personal staffer. MLA Umashankar Gupta’s personal assistant Arun Jawanjal is also a UDC with the BMC. On the records all these officials are paid by the Corporation.
Moreover, BMC has also provided vehicle facility to a couple of ministers and officials. Sources said BMC staffers also carry out ‘full time’ maintenance of lawns at bungalows allotted to IAS officers U K Samal, Dilip Mehra, Satya Prakash, D P Tiwari, Mohammed Suleiman, S K Mishra, Manish Singh, Gulshan Bamra, Malay Shrivastava, Iqbal Singh Bains and others.
{{/usCountry}}Moreover, BMC has also provided vehicle facility to a couple of ministers and officials. Sources said BMC staffers also carry out ‘full time’ maintenance of lawns at bungalows allotted to IAS officers U K Samal, Dilip Mehra, Satya Prakash, D P Tiwari, Mohammed Suleiman, S K Mishra, Manish Singh, Gulshan Bamra, Malay Shrivastava, Iqbal Singh Bains and others.
{{/usCountry}}Of these, about half a dozen officials have been associated with the BMC through either their posting in the Urban Administration Department or as BMC commissioner. The number of IAS officers using the BMC staff part-time services is also quite high.
Sources added State Administrative Service officer Vaid Prakash, Manish Singh, MB Ojha and others are also enjoying services of BMC garden section employees at their residences, while on the record, these BMC employees are working in the public gardens.
When asked, Mayor Sunil Sood admitted BMC staff was working at places that are not the liability of the BMC. He said BMC had been finding itself helpless in this regard. BMC Commissioner Manish Singh declined to comment on this issue.