Municipal Corporations grappling with staff crunch

Over 5,300 posts are lying vacant in three municipal corporations in Delhi, severely affecting their daily functioning as well as implementation of various government schemes.
As per official figures, the number of posts remaining vacant in North Delhi Municipal Corporation stands at 877 out of 5,025 sanctioned posts, while 2,828 posts are lying vacant out of 4,492 in South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
A total of 1,690 posts are unfilled out of 2,766 in East Delhi Municipal Corporation, bringing the number to 5,395 vacant posts out of 12,283 sanctioned posts across the three civic bodies.
"This has severely affected the working of the corporation. Not only does it impact the provision of services to the people, which is our main aim, it also overburdens the existing staff," said BJP Councillor in North Corporation Vijay Prakash Pandey.

Pandey, who raised the matter in the House recently by putting up a short notice, also argued that the problem had become more acute since the trifurcation of the MCD last year.
"The problem existed before that, but once the trifurcation happened, it has suddenly become all the more glaring," he said.

Pointing out that the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board has not conducted recruitment for these posts for past several years, EDMC Commissioner S S Yadav said, "While at the Group A level the number of officers is enough, at levels B and C, the situation is not good".

The situation on the ground can be assessed from the latest figures provided by the civic bodies. In NDMC, 258 posts of Lower Division Clerk and 122 posts of Upper Division Clerk remain vacant.
53 account assistants, 21 administration officers and 125 chowkidar posts remain unfilled. Five out of eight superintendent engineer posts also remain vacant.