No post of estate officer in civic body, reveals RTI

Civic body appointing non-gazetted officers, superintendents as makeshift provision

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 6

The Municipal Corporation of Amritsar has been appointing non-gazetted officers and superintendents on the post of estate officer for the past several years. But while replying to an RTI query, the Local Bodies Department has revealed that the government never constituted the post of estate officer in any of the civic body in the state.

Rakesh Sharma, an RTI activist, had filed the RTI query and sought the record of the estate officer in civic bodies of the state. On September 18, the superintendent, Local Governments Branch-1, responded that the government never constituted any post of estate officer. But the MC of Amritsar has been appointing the estate officers for the past several years.

Sharma also sought information about the tehbazaari wing of the MC. He asked the authorities to provide orders in which the government eliminated the wing. The Local Bodies Department clearly mentioned that the government did not eliminate the tehbazaari wing.

Jaswinder Singh, superintendent, street vending wing, said, “Earlier, we used to collect the tehbazaari fee from vendors. The government has introduced a street vending policy and the MC Commissioner merged the tehbazaari wing into the street vending wing. Now, we have identified 43 zones, work on which is in progress. The Local Bodies Department may not be aware of the street vending policy.”

Sushant Bhatia, estate officer, MC, said, “It is true that the government did not constitute the post of estate officer. It is a makeshift arrangement made by the MC Commissioner.”