Municipal Corporation Panchkula office is operating with full confidence. Employees can come and go as they wish. The Commissioner and the Mayor have no influence over the employees. Most of the employees are outsourced, and due to their significant reach, they don’t even heed the Commissioner and the Mayor.
This is the condition of the office where the Mayor, Municipal Corporation Commissioner, and Joint Commissioner sit. The situation is even worse in other offices of the corporation. People are looking for employees to get their work done, but even after searching for the mayor and commissioner, they cannot find the employees.
On Saturday, Panchkula Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal raided the branches of Sector 4 and 12A to check the orders for setting up the Municipal Corporation office. During the inspection, 29 out of 43 employees from the engineering branch were found absent. Nine out of 40 from Horticulture Wing One, nine out of 36 from Horticulture Wing, four out of 21 from Junior Engineer Rohit Saini’s branch, two out of 13 from the Zonal Taxation Branch, two out of eight from the Building Branch, and 10 out of 12 employees in the National Urban Livelihood Mission branch were absent.
Additionally, four out of 37 employees of the Encroachment Removal branch and all five employees of the Sudda staff were found absent. Junior Engineer Hitanshu Bansal and Helper Pradeep were repeatedly called by the Mayor during the inspection and asked to show the register, but they did not come. Later, all the attendance was filled in the register with a pen and sent. The Mayor has directed that an explanation should be taken from the 74 employees found absent, and 2 days’ salary should be deducted from all of them.
Even before this, Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal had raided the corporation office on December 5, during which 17 out of 92 employees were found missing from duty. The Mayor had suspended two employees and issued notices to 15 others. The same Urban Local Bodies Minister has also conducted raids in Panchkula Corporation, but even after that, the situation remains the same.
Some officers and employees had registered leave in advance during the surprise inspection by Kulbhushan Goyal. They had already filled the Saturday holiday in the register, whereas instructions have been given by the Commissioner that the office will be held on Saturday. The Mayor found during the investigation that there was not a single employee in one branch. Let me tell you that Kulbhushan Goyal has already taken action by raiding. During the surprise inspection, Kulbhushan Goyal was accompanied by councilors Suresh Kumar Verma, Jai Kaushik, Sonia Sood, and Sunit Singla.
The Mayor expressed displeasure when 74 employees were found missing. In most of the branches in the Sector 4 and 12A office, there is a movement of people. Many people come with their complaints, and many come with their work. Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal said that he was continuously receiving complaints that employees were not sitting on their seats and did not come on Saturday.
Most employees disappear before 5 in the afternoon. Due to this, to verify the complaints, he reached the spot and investigated, noticing that employees were missing from many seats. Kulbhushan Goyal said that the Municipal Corporation has 540 employees placed under the Haryana Employment Skills Corporation. These employees are given a salary of Rs 1 crore 40 lakh every month.
Besides, 645 employees are on the municipal roll, and about 45 are regular employees. Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal said that the employees engaged in public-related work will have to perform duty on Saturday because most people in Panchkula city are employed and work in government offices. Those who have a holiday on Saturday, hence these people come to the Municipal Corporation office on Saturday to get their work done. In such a situation, if the employees are not on duty, then people have to face a lot of trouble.
- The Municipal Corporation Panchkula is facing a significant issue with employee attendance. During surprise inspections, a large number of employees were found to be absent from various branches, affecting the efficiency of the office.
- Most of the employees in the Municipal Corporation are outsourced, and their significant reach and influence seem to undermine the authority of the Commissioner and the Mayor. This poses a challenge in enforcing discipline and ensuring regular attendance.
- Despite previous actions taken by Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal and the Urban Local Bodies Minister, the situation hasn’t improved. Officers and employees have been found to register leave in advance during surprise inspections, and some even fill in false attendance details in the register.
- The absenteeism issue is affecting public services, as people coming to the Municipal Corporation office for various tasks are unable to find employees to assist them. The absence of employees, especially on Saturdays, is causing inconvenience to the public.
- The Mayor has directed that 2 days’ salary be deducted from the 74 employees found absent. This suggests that the absenteeism issue not only affects public services but also has financial implications for the employees involved.