Dharamshala Mayor Devinder Singh Jaggi Wednesday complained of the city municipal corporation being under-staffed and rued that the state government was doing noting to appoint more officials despite repeated requests.
Dharmshala Municipal Corporation is the second one in Himachal Pradesh after Shimla. It was established in 2015.
"Shimla has 34 wards while Dharamshala has 17. Keeping this in mind, Dharamshala Municipal Corporation (DMC) must have half the numbers of officials Shimla has," he said.
But, we are being forced to run the DMC since its establishment on a very small strength of employees, he rued.
"Shimla Municipal Corporation has 2,100 officials, while DMC has just 121. The SMC has 29 junior engineers, while the DMC has just four," he added.
Talking to PTI, Dharamshala Mayor said he has written thrice to the Himachal government, seeking urgent sanctioning of 32 posts for different officials but nothing has been done so far.
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Even Manali Municipal Council has double the number of junior engineers that DMC has, Jaggi lamented.
Shimla Municipal Corporation has a separate wing for passing construction work maps while it is done by burdened engineers here," he added.
The mayor, however, said the Dharamshala Municipal Corporation, despite being under-staffed, is working with full spirit.
"The DMC has issued work tenders worth Rs 27 crore in the last 10 months. Works on many projects are in progress, said Jaggi, adding that even payments worth Rs 7 crore too have been made so far by the municipal body.
The civic body has planned to provide street parking for various colonies having large number of vehicles, he said, adding that in some of the wards, even the work for it has been started.
To ease the traffic flow in areas like Bagsunag, Mecleodganj and Kotwali, the civic body is building one-way roads, he said, adding parks for senior-citizens, women and children too would be built in various wards.
The sites for the same have already been identified, he said.
The mayor said the civic body would start door-to-door garbage collection from January at a nominal cost of Rs 50 per month for each house.
The shops and other establishments, however, will have to pay a little more, he added.
Jaggi said the civic body has also reached an agreement with two NGOs for the sterilization of stray dogs in the city and the work will start soon on this project.
He said the civic body has also floated tenders worth Rs 2,700 crores for various projects to turn Dharamshala into a smart city.