The civic agencies’ earlier move to curb corruption in building and sanitation department got a setback as now chances are high that the transfer policy introduced in July 2014 to address the menace is to be scrapped owing to alleged “political pressure”.
Under the transfer policy it was decided to transfer staff in a stipulated time. However, it was noticed that the policy was not being followed.
Officials stated, “The policy is not working because there is lot of political pressure from local councillors and corporation members. Since they were highly reluctant with the transfer, the policy is not being followed.”
Officials in the North Corporation said it is “impossible” to follow the policy owing to the shortage of staff. “The number of sanitary inspectors and junior engineers we have is already short and therefore it is not easy to transfer a sanitary inspector from one zone or another,” said an official. With this move, the corruption within the Department will only increase in the corporation, said sources.
Earlier, the civic body had framed a transfer policy for engineers and supervisory staff in the sanitation department which aimed at introducing greater efficiency and transparency in the two crucial departments.
Then the civic body had formed a committee to look into the matter. The committee was headed by leader of House in SDMC, Subhash Arya with Opposition leader Farhad Suri and councillor Satender Prakash as members. As per the policy proposal, the junior engineers (JE) in the building department cannot remain posted in a locality for more than a year.
Similarly, a JE has to be transferred out of the zone after two years while completion of three years would mean the junior engineer has to be transferred out of the building department.
“There have been several complaints of the building department staff colluding with the local builders and thus patronising illegal construction. The transfer policy will ensure that the engineering department staffs are rotated from one wing to another,” said a senior official.