Solution to human resource shortage appears to be in sight for the Coimbatore Corporation as the top two officials — Commissioner G. Latha and Deputy Commissioner S. Sivarasu — met the Secretary, Municipal Administration, K. Phanindra Reddy in this regard in Chennai on Tuesday.
According to sources, the two officers had on agenda three projects — staff shortage, new land for the Corporation zoo and sanction for central bus stand project. The officers’ meeting with Mr. Reddy follows a review the latter held in the Corporation on Monday.
At the meeting, the two officers had reportedly raised the issue of 715 posts that had remained vacant for some time.
In response the Secretary promised the Corporation officers that the Government would help the civic body fill up the posts at the earliest.
The 715 posts the officers had talked about were pending for over a year now. Last time the Corporation took up the issue was in June 2012.
In the then Council meeting, the Corporation passed a resolution urging the Government to fill up the posts that had remained vacant ever since the Government sanctioned the creation of 4,500 posts in May 1999.
The Corporation said it passed the resolution because the then Commissioner for Municipal Administration had said that by obtaining the State Government’s consent, the Corporation could fill up the posts within two months.
The resolution also said that if the civic body were to fill up the 715 vacant posts, the expenditure it would incur under the ‘salary and pension’ head would be only 34.12 per cent of the revenue.
Now more than a year after the resolution, the Corporation had not filled up the posts. It had again knocked on the doors of the Secretary, Municipal Administration, seeking help in filling up the vacancies.
Sources in the Corporation said that if Government were to sanction the posts it would be a boost to the Corporation, which was crippled by human resource shortage.
Zoo
As for the other two proposals — zoo and bus stand — the officials had requested early transfer of the land (prison grounds) to the Corporation.
