Staff crunch could weigh down Greater Mangalore proposal

Sources say 71 p.c. posts in Ullal town municipality and 57 p.c. posts in Mulki TP are vacant

More than 60 per cent of sanctioned posts in Mangalore City Corporation remain vacant even as Urban Development Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake has been repeatedly talking about creating Greater Mangalore by bringing Ullal town municipality and Mulki town panchayats under the jurisdiction of the MCC.

Sources said that 71 per cent of posts in Ullal town municipality and 57 per cent of posts in Mulki town panchayat remained vacant at present.

A former Commissioner of the MCC told

The Hindu that though the vacancy position in the three urban local bodies appear stark, in reality it would not come in the way of providing effective administration if the two urban local bodies were merged with the city corporation.

It was because a majority of the posts lying vacant in the three urban local bodies were that of ‘poura karmikas’ (civic workers belonging to Group D) whose services have been outsourced by the local governments now. Effective administration could be given by using the services of Group A and Group B staff (officers) and Group C staff (clerical staff) though there are some vacancies in those categories also, he said.

The former commissioner said that what was important in administration was decentralisation, division of labour and delegation of power.

He said that as the cadre and recruitment (C & R) rules for City Corporation staff had come into effect from 2011-12 the city corporation here should first form zones for effective administration. Sources in the corporation said that 14 posts of Group A, 22 posts of Group B and 323 posts of Group C remained vacant in the city corporation now.

They said that the government has posted a zonal commissioner to the corporation recently. The government is yet to post two more zonal commissioners. The zones, however, have not been created yet. It has been planned to open a zonal office in the city corporation building at Lalbagh while the second zonal office will come up at Mallikatta and the third at Surathkal.The zonal commissioner in each zone will be assisted by a development officer (assistant executive engineer – civil), a revenue officer and an assistant revenue officer, an environment engineer, four assistant engineers for civil, electrical, water supply and underground drainage works. In addition there will be other supporting staff.

Sources said that a council secretary has been posted to the city corporation.