03 June,2009 09:09 AM IST | | Amit Kumar
That's become the rule in MCD, where councillors are protesting against three "autocratic" deputy commissioners, who are reputed to be honest
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Who doesn't want a positive performance appraisal report? Every body does, right? Wrong! Deputy commissioners of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) prefer negative markings on their KRA (Key Result Area) reports.
In fact, contrary to the corporate world, they pray to be labeled "bad performers".
According to sources, MCD councillors, who are the political bosses of the deputy commissioners, are never too happy with honest officers.
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In a recent example of the councillors' ire against honesty, the elected representatives unanimously protested against three deputy commissioners, who are reputed to be honest with their work.
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Sources said the three deputy commissioners, all retired military officers, had stopped the practice of engaging lower level MCD employees at residences of councillors for personal work.
"All councillors unofficially employ more than 12 MCD employees each for personal work like gardening, cooking and cleaning.
But the three deputy commissioners had stopped the practice in their zones," said a senior MCD official, wishing anonymity.
Expectedly, the "spoilt" councillors were not very pleased with the strict officers.
Ironically, the senior official said, the three deputy commissioners were deputed by Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna to weed out corruption from the civic body.
Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain agreed the councillors were not too happy with the deputy commissioners.
"The MCD House, in a recent meeting, passed a resolution that three deputy commissioners will be transferred out of their present zones. All the councillors, irrespective of their political affiliations, complained against the three.
If there were a single complaint, I would have ignored it. As far as the KRAs of deputy commissioners are concerned, we are not involved. It is a bureaucratic exercise," said Sain.
The councillors, meanwhile, alleged that the three deputy commissioners didn't listen to them and behaved in an autocratic manner.
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Bharatiya Janata Party councillor and Leader of the MCD House Subhash Arya said, "We have the highest regard for them.
But there are so many complaints. The officers should be shifted from public dealing responsibilities and given other tasks."
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Khavinder Singh, a Congress councillor and member of the MCD Standing Committee, said:u00a0 "We welcome that former servicemen are being given a chance. But we found they are not very successful in jobs which involved public dealing.
They are inaccessible and do not communicate well with public representatives. We just want them to be shifted to some other work."
The mammoth organisation, often alleged to be overstaffed, has about 1.75 lakh employees, out of which 86,000 are sweepers. Interestingly, the Indian Air Force has only 1.1 lakh employees.
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The MCD is in a war with the Delhi government over issues of non-performance of its babus.
How the babus are graded:
The MCD commissioner's office prepares performance reports of all the 12 deputy commissioners in Delhi.
The commissioner seeks reports on various parameters like maintenance of parks and gardens, cleanliness, adequate parking areas, water management, check on illegal slaughtering and development of roads from the zonal commissioners.
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The final report is forwarded to the Lieutenant-Governor's office, which evaluates their KRAs.
Bigger than the Air Force?
The mammoth organisation, often alleged to be overstaffed, has about 1.75 lakh employees, out of which 86,000 are sweepers. Interestingly, the Indian Air Force has only 1.1 lakh employees
Officers facing the ire of councillors:
SK Midha from Central and South Zone
Brig Rajinder Singh from West and Nazafgarh zone
DV Verma from Karol Bagh zone
