Surprise check by local bodies minister keeps officials on toes

Surprise check by the local bodies minister Anil Joshi kept the municipal corporation officials on their toes on Monday. The minister conducted this surprise check to know the problems being faced by the public.

The minister strictly warned the MC officials to ensure timely public services, and also directed the officials dealing with public to stay at their office from 9 am to 1 pm on working days.

He said they could participate in any meeting if required, but only after office hours.

After reaching at MC zone A office, the Joshi first went to inspect the Suvidha Centre, where he checked the records and pending cases of birth and death certificates.

The minister also directed the MC commissioner Pradeep Agarwal to ensure that the people do not have to face any harassment. He said they should fix the responsibilities of officials concerned, so that people could get their work done within time as per norms.

Minister also expressed dissatisfaction as the required information boards, displaying about time bound services, were missing. The visitors had complained that the copies of birth and death certificates were not being issued within time as per the Right to Service Act.

Besides, it was also complained that the maps of buildings were generally not passed for long time due to which people were forced to construct illegal buildings. For this, Joshi also demanded the files regarding building branch.

Minister warned the officials to not harass people by marking objections every time and asked them to mark all objections, if any, at once, so that people were not harassed by visiting office again and again.

Claiming that corruption would not be tolerated, Joshi said if a person concerned followed all norms, then the building maps must be passed within time. He admitted that without consent of the MC officials nobody could construct illegal buildings.

Talking about the issue of development works, the minister directed the of ficials to install boards displaying contact number of concerned junior engineers, sub-divisional officials, executive engineers and commissioner.

Meanwhile district Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Parveen Bansal also complained to the minister that the officials don’t take action on the complaints.

On being asked that why payment was made to the contractor if sample of newly-carpeted Pakhowal Road got failed?, the minister during the meeting sought answer from additional commissioner Sumeet Jarangal, who claimed that the whole payment was not made to the contractor.

Joshi also directed the MC commissioner to blacklist the contractors, who were not following the norms and meeting deadlines.

“I got some late on Monday, but next time I will reach at 9 am at MC office to check attendance of the officials. If anybody is found late or absent then action will be taken,” he said.

MC commissioner Pradeep Kumar Agarwal said, “We will ensure that the services are delivered within time to the public. On the directions of the minister, we will make report of the pending cases at Suvidha Centre and if anybody is held responsible, then action will be taken.”