Frequent transfers hit Faridabad MC functioning

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, September 18

The Municipal Corporation, Faridabad (MC), the largest civic body in the state, has failed to get a Commissioner on a stable basis for the past several years. It has reportedly resulted in problems regarding the management and delivery of services to residents.

The civic body has seen nine Commissioners since November 2, 2015. The average tenure of the Commissioner here comes out to be five months and 11 days.

Anita Yadav has now been replaced by Sonal Goel. She is the third Commissioner in less than a year. While Mohammed Shayin held the charge till December 2018, his successor Yadav held the post for about eight and a half months. The incumbency board of the MC reveals that Goel is the 12th officer since February 9, 2015. She is, however, the ninth incumbent since November 2, 2015, to be posted as the Commissioner, MC.

Only Goel worked for a little over one year between August 6, 2016, and August 14, 2017. The average tenure of the officers has come out to be seven months since January 2018. Seventeen officers have been posted here in the past six years.

“The MC seems to have become only a transit station for officers as the majority of them have been transferred out even before they could understand the functioning of the civic body,” says Varun Sheokand, a social activist. “This is perhaps the depth of the seriousness of the government in taking the city on the smart path, as Faridabad is among two cities of Haryana under the Smart City project,” he said.

He claimed that an officer was transferred in December just because he had dared to order demolition of 140 farmhouses and an under-construction hotel in the the Aravalli belt of Surajkund. “Political intervention has been the main reason behind the problem,” he said.