After ignoring it for half a decade, the State Government is going to start anew with the appointment of city managers for urban bodies across the State. This was announced by state urban development Secretary Arun Kumar Singh during a workshop on implementation of property tax collection regulations at SKIPA on Wednesday.
“There is manpower crunch in municipal corporations across the state, which is resulting in highly disorganised functioning of the civic bodies. Five years ago, city managers were to be appointed to deal with this mismanagement but the recruitment process was put on the backburner and ultimately forgotten. We intend to see it through this time,” said the Secretary.
The proposal of appointing city managers across the state was approved for the first time by the Shibu Soren cabinet in 2010.
“After 2010, the proposal of appointing city managers was floated once again one or two years ago, but could not be materialised yet again,” stated RMC PRO Naresh Sinha.
On reasons why this initiative failed to see the day of light, urban development Director Shashi Ranjan Prasad Singh said, “Officers change and so do the priority assigned to projects. This might have been the case with city manager appointment too. But it will be different this time.”
Fresh applications will be invited from interested professionals with MBA or PGDM degrees will be hired for 42 posts of city managers. They will be appointed for a term of three years on contractual basis, as originally planned, with salaries equivalent to those of senior administrative officials.
“The prime responsibility of these city managers will be to assess the executive officials of Municipal Corporation and municipal bodies and support them in managing projects and finances. They will manage, supervise, scrutinise and help in any way necessary to strengthen the municipal bodies,” he said.
But won’t adding another aspect to local governance add to the lack of coordination already rampant in urban authorities. No, says the Secretary.
“Executive officials, elected representatives are coming together and interacting on a single platform; this workshop on holding tax collection is an apt example. Those who refuse to coordinate will be brought in line,” said Secretary Arun Kumar Singh.
Addressing the workshop, state urban development minister C.P. Singh said, “Civic bodies should improve on both the quality and quantity of their work. Projects should be completed on time without any compromise on quality of work being done.”