Dharamsala MC’s wait for adequate staff gets longer

Lalit Mohan

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Dharamsala, July 12

Despite repeated reminders, the state government has failed to provide the sanctioned staff strength to the Dharamsala Municipal Corporation. The staff shortage was hampering the working of the corporation, leading to a delay in the approval of maps, besides many other development works.

Dharamsala MC Commissioner Zaffar Iqbal admitted that the corporation had written to the government repeatedly over the staff shortage. The required strength of the staff in the corporation was yet to be granted by the government, he said.

Dharamsala was upgraded from a municipal council to a corporation in 2015 during the previous tenure of the Congress government. After the formation of corporation, eight villages around Dharamsala town were merged with the corporation area. This increased the area of Dharamsala urban body many times. The population also went up from nearly 21,000 to more than 50,000.

Nine years after the Dharamsala Municipal Corporation came into being, the urban body is functioning with the same staff when it was a municipal council. Both the previous Congress and BJP governments failed to provide additional staff to the corporation despite repeated requests from the officials and the MC House.

In the recent past, the Dharamsala MC had passed a resolution and sought immediate sanctioning of 37 posts of engineers, sanitary inspectors and other clerical staff for smooth functioning of the urban body, sources told The Tribune.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, officials of the Dharamsala urban body said they do not have even 10 per cent staff compared to the Shimla MC. Due to the staff shortage, the daily functioning of the MC, such as regulating estate or properties of the urban body, clearing of maps, enforcing building bylaws and regulations was getting hit.

Similarly, Palampur was upgraded from a council to a corporation by the previous BJP government in 2020. The area of the council was increased many times as many villages around Palampur town were merged with the corporation area. However, no additional staff was given to manage the additional area.

The Palampur MC authorities had written to the government to sanction 31 posts of engineers, sanitary inspector and clerical staff. The proposal was pending with the government.

Though the government has upgraded Dharamsala and Palampur to corporations, the urban bodies are still dependent on government doles for development works. The corporations have failed to generate their own funds.

The property tax was yet to be implemented in the merged areas of the two MCs as the proposal was facing resistance from people residing in the newly merged areas.

The officials working in the two corporations feel they can apply for many projects being offered by the Union Government for urban development, but they also require adequate staff at their disposal.