Wrong data puts staff in spot

CAN AN employee who joins in 2003 get superannuated in 2013? The Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) appears to think so. Dozens of Health Department staffers have been slated for retirement in IMC records merely 10 years after they joined service.

The anomaly has been caused because of an erroneous data collation by M/s Oswal Data, the firm that earlier handled the Corporation’s computer records, according to union leader Jatashankar Karosia.

“The company either listed incorrect dates of birth or fed wrong joining dates into the computer”, he charged. The erroneously collated data has resulted in a piquant situation for Health Department staffers who’ve been doing the rounds of the Establishment and Computer departments with copies of birth certificates and appointment letters in a bid to prove that they are eligible for another 20-30 years of service.

Others in the IMC said it wasn’t fair to blame Oswal Data for the mistake. “There’s an acute shortage of staff. The Health Department alone has more than 5,000 staffers but there are only 20 people to maintain records. Naturally, errors creep in sometimes”, said an officer speaking on condition of anonymity.

When contacted Additional Municipal Commissioner (General Administration Department) Kumar Purshottam, however, assured that the staffers wouldn’t have to suffer, as the errors were “the result of a computer glitch”.

The employee’s tenure will be decided on the basis of hard copies of the service record and not on entries made by Oswal Data, said the Additional Commissioner.