Government departments cite manpower crunch to keep employees off census duty

While the civic body plans to wrap up the work by month end, most govt offices refuse to deploy their clerical staff saying they are already short-handed

Though the deadline for completing the economic census drive, undertaken by the PMC planning department geared, is nearing its end, most of the government offices refused to deploy their clerical staff citing manpower crunch in their respective departments.

Representation pic

Initially, the census was expected to commence and conclude in September. But the deadline was extended till November-end, as very few government departments responded to the civic body’s request of sending their employees for the duty.

Deputy Municipal Commissioner Anil Pawar said, “Under the economic census, six lakh households and institutions will be targeted. To do so, we require 2,100 staffers and 1,052 supervisors, who can complete this gigantic task in a month’s time. While only a handful government offices responded positively, most said they were short-staffed.”

So to counter the problem, the PMC checked the list of government employees who were assigned election duties in the past and issued them orders to join the census duty immediately.

“We don’t have options. We have shortlisted 50 per cent employees of the total staff required for the census duty by this method. We have arranged training camp for these staffers between November 22 and November 28 November, after which they’ll be sent for the census duty,” Pawar said.

Not so pleased
The University of Pune (UoP), one of the government establishments, which received the order of sending its non-teaching clerical staff for the census duty, seemed unwilling to send any of its employees.

UoP Registrar Narendra Kadu said, “We have received orders from the PMC, but considering the workload we are not in a position to send any of our employees for the census duty. I will personally contact the PMC officials and request them to revoke the order.” u00a0

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