Confusion over extension of MC Commissioner

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 22

Even as Municipal Corporation Commissioner Anindita Mitra’s three-year tenure ended today, neither has she been granted extension nor any other IAS officer given the charge, resulting in a peculiar situation.

The Punjab Government has not sent any panel for the post of commissioner this time, which made the UT Administration write to the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking a three-month extension for the incumbent Punjab cadre officer. As no extension order for her tenure has been issued by the Centre, there has been confusion with regard to the post in the Municipal Corporation as well as the UT Secretariat.

Sources in the UT Administration said, “We have told her that since she has not been given any posting by the Punjab Government, she should expect the extension of her tenure as MC chief. We are following up with the Department of Personnel and Training for her extension.”

An officer said as per the norms, the administration may extend the tenure of an IAS officer for three months without the need for getting an NOC from the officer’s parent cadre.

Since the Punjab Government has neither sent any panel nor given her any posting, which generally takes a few days after the end of an officer’s term, the administration had to write to the Centre for the MC chief’s extension.

The situation is said to be a result of the current political scenario. While Punjab is ruled by AAP, the BJP is in power at the Centre. There are contradictory views of the two party units about Mitra’s extension.

The UT Administration, which is already short of officers for top posts, may give additional charge of the post to an officer if it does not get extension order for Mitra.

Officers promoted

At the fag end of the MC chief’s tenure, a number of officers got promotion. PP Singh, Prabjot Singh, Yogesh Aggarwal and Amit Sharma have been promoted from Sub-Divisional Engineer to Executive Engineer, while Yashpal Gupta, Sanjeev Chauhan, Lalit Kumar and Angrej got promoted from Junior Engineer to Sub-Divisional Engineer.

A farewell for Mitra will be held by MC staff at Mahila Bhawan at 4 pm tomorrow.

No UT Finance Secy since June

There has been no Finance Secretary in UT since June. Also, the post of Home Secretary had been vacant for over two months before Mandip Singh Brar, a 2005-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, was given the charge last week.