Hyderabad: Residents of the city are troubled by bumpy roads, potholes and leakages in the drainage system.
They say that when they register complaints with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), officials often mark them as “closed” without verifying if any action has been taken. Meanwhile, officials say that they are unable to address grievances because of a staff crunch.
P. Satish, a resident of Chilukanagar in the Uppal division, says that the stormwater drain in his area has been overflowing for several weeks. He says that local residents have registered complaints at the Uppal circle office of the civic body, but there has been no change in the situation.
problem of plenty
“I even registered a complaint through the My GHMC App. An official called me and then closed my complaint without attending to it,” he says.
Echoing his concern, Srinivas Dubey, a resident of Mylargadda near Padmaraonagar, says that he and other residents have filed complaints regarding the potholes near Chilakalaguda Junction, but the situation has remained unattended for several weeks. He says that the potholes pose a grave threat to commuters and pedestrians. Several non-fatal accidents, which have gone unreported, have occurred in that area.
“I have been pleading with the GHMC officials to repair the potholes, but my grievances have fallen on deaf ears,” he says.
He adds that officials have claimed, on several occasions, that they have not been able to resolve the problem because of a severe staff crunch.
When this paper tried to question GHMC officials, they refused to comment on the matter. Deccan Chronicle then took the issue up with higher authorities and asked them why complaints registered with the GHMC were being closed without being resolved. An official admitted that the field-level staff had been not attending to grievances. He said that the corporation had issued 120 show-cause notices in that regard.
The official said that in order to enhance efficacy of the grievance redressal system, the corporation had decided to set up an exclusive mechanism that involved third-party verification. He added that citizens would be allowed to provide feedback and rate officials. “Based on the citizens’ feedback, the complaint will be closed. If it is not resolved, the corporation will initiate stringent action against the concerned officials,” he said.
80% of GHMC’s new recruits not qualified
Officials of the GHMC have claimed, on several occasions, that they are unable to address grievances or execute work at ground level because of a severe staff crunch.
However, the GHMC actually has excess staff. The GHMC has employed 209 more engineers than needed. And about 80 percent of the GHMC’s 340 new recruits are ill qualified.
According to official data gathered from the civic body, though only one chief engineer is required, there are three. The sanctioned number of superintendent engineers is 12, however, 22 are employed by the corporation. 19 additional executive engineers have been recruited over and above the actual requirement of 54. There are 72 assistant executive engineers (AEE), 42 assistant engineers (AE), 54 technical officers, five MAEEs (DR) and five MAEs (Electrical) in excess.
About 80 percent of the AEEs recently recruited are mechanical engineers, and they have been asked to execute civil engineering works. These engineers are ill-equipped to perform the duties assigned to them. Highly-placed sources say even the though government’s decision to recruit engineers was a welcome one, engineers from the wrong stream have been picked.
They also say that it has become a herculean task for the GHMC to train the new recruits to execute civil works at the desired pace.
They claim that this is not only a waste of taxpayers’ money but also a waste of the time and effort of senior officials involved in the training process.
