Vice-Chairperson seeks urgent government intervention amid manpower crunch
Jharsuguda, Sept 29: Jharsuguda Municipality is functioning with just 20 employees against a sanctioned strength of 80, leaving 60 posts vacant and raising concerns over the delivery of civic services in the rapidly growing town.
According to the staff-position statement as of August 31, as many as 75 per cent of the sanctioned posts in the municipality remain vacant. The shortage has reportedly put pressure on existing employees and affected sanitation, revenue collection, administration, civic services and execution of development works.
Jharsuguda Municipality Vice-Chairperson Benugopal Panigrahi has sought urgent intervention from the state government for filling up the vacant posts. He has written to Housing and Urban Development Minister Krushna Chandra Mahapatra, Additional Chief Secretary Usha Padhee, Director of Municipal Administration Arindam Dakua, Jharsuguda Collector Kunal Motiram Chavan, Jharsuguda MLA Tankadhar Tripathy and Bargarh MP Pradip Purohit.
The municipality has 80 sanctioned posts, but only 20 employees are currently in position. The vacancies are particularly acute in the sanitation and revenue sections. All 21 sanctioned posts of sweeper/sweepress are vacant, while 10 of the 15 tax and fee collector posts are unfilled.
Similarly, seven of the 10 junior assistant posts and all four zamadar posts are vacant. The municipality also has five vacant senior assistant posts, while both sanctioned junior engineer posts remain unfilled. Vacancies have also been reported in the posts of head assistant, homoeopathy doctor, work sarkar, peon/chowkidar and amin.
Panigrahi said Jharsuguda has been witnessing rapid urban growth, resulting in an increasing demand for civic services. However, the shortage of regular staff has placed a considerable workload on the existing workforce.
“The municipality requires immediate filling of all essential vacant posts to ensure timely, efficient and uninterrupted civic services to the people of Jharsuguda,” Panigrahi said.
The situation could become more challenging with the scheduled retirement of the municipal engineer on October 31. Panigrahi said the retirement could further affect the technical capacity of the civic body as well as supervision of ongoing and proposed development works.
He has therefore sought adequate interim manpower until the sanctioned vacancies are filled. He also urged the state government and elected representatives to take up the matter on priority in the larger public interest.
The staff-position statement indicates that the municipality is currently relying on work-charged, contractual and outsourced personnel for certain functions, including sanitation, electrical engineering, programme implementation and technical consultancy. However, Panigrahi stressed that regular sanctioned posts need to be filled for the effective functioning of the municipality.
Jharsuguda Municipality Executive Officer Nishikant Tete said, “We have already intimated this to the department.”
