Out of 469 employees, only 3officials are regular
Authority spent a mere Rs.347 crore against the plan expenditure of Rs.1001 crore in 2018-19
Gurugram, 3 May
Just think of it if the apex body responsible for city’s development-
Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) outsources its responsibility, how can the development of the city be ensured. At
least, the working style of GMDA demonstrates this, as out of the entire
staff of 469, only 3 employees have been recruited as regular employees.
Manav Awaaj Convener, Advocate Abhay Jain and Spokesperson Banwari Lal Saini informed that presently 469 employees are working in GMDA,
out of which barring 3 officials, all 466remaining employees have not been given regular employment.
In GMDA, 336 employees have been outsourced while 60 employees are on
contract and 54 are on deputation. These include Chief Engineer-Infrastructure, Chief General Manager, Chief Town Planner, Chief Accounts Officer, IT Head, Additional CEO- Environment, Advisor Smart Cities and Advisor Engineering. Five officials have additional charge.
In the personal staff of CEO, all the seven employees are either on deputation or outsourced. So much so that even the Personal Assistant, Peon and Driver of the CEO are on deputation. In such a situation how can the secrecy of the organization remain intact.
Besides the lack of regular employees, another major reason for ineffective functioning of GMDA is that its CEO, V Umashankar has been given triple charge. In addition to his responsibility as CEO of GMDA,he is handling the responsibility of Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister and CEO of Haryana Kisan Kalyan Pradhikaran. It is not possible to do justice to this triple charge because as Additional Principal Secretary to CM and CEO of Haryana Kisan Kalyan Pradhikaran, V Umashankar is required to be in Chandigarh whereas the office of the GMDA CEO is in Gurugram. This is adversely impacting the functioning of GMDA.
Besides the sad state of affairs on staff front, the financial aspect of GMDA is also a matter of great concern. The Authority in the financial year 2018-19 had a plan expenditure of Rs.1001.42 crore for development activities in the city but out of this it spent only Rs.347.14 crore. Similarly, GMDA had a receipt plan of Rs.490.15 crore for 2018-19. However its actual receipt was only Rs.109.77 crore. Thus, in the financial year 2018-19, GMDA collected a total of Rs.109.77 crore and spent Rs.347.14 crore, thereby having a shortfall of Rs.238 crore.
For the financial year 2019-20, GMDA has a plan expenditure of Rs.1433.07 crore with a receipt target of Rs.675.20 crore. This means that in 2019-20 also, GMDA will be having a budget deficit of Rs.758 crore.
Abhay Jain has expressed sadness that right from the beginning GMDA is running into financial loss. He further added that how serious Haryana government is with regard to the working of GMDA, is evident from the fact that on one hand, the state government has made no permanent arrangement for funding GMDA, on the other hand, the department has recruited several advisors on hefty salaries. It may be noted that the GMDA office is functioning from rented premises.
Today Gurugram’s population is increasing at a fast pace. The city has already established its identity as a global financial hub and is making more than 50% contribution to the overall revenue of Haryana. The city is a hub of Fortune 500 companies. Considering this backdrop, GMDA was constituted to ensure speedy all round development of the city in a coordinated manner. But even after 4 years and 7 months rule of BJP, the ineffective functioning of GMDA is affecting the development of the city.
Manav Awaaj has written letters to Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar and Haryana Chief Secretary, demanding regular appointment of employees of GMDA and ridding its CEO of triple charge so that he may efficiently perform his duty as a full time CEO and the development of Gurugram could gain momentum.
