MCG diktat: Be at seat, don’t wander off to lawns

GURGAON: It was during his interactions with various stakeholders of the city, including residents, while drafting the bill for the proposed Gurgaon Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) that V Umashankar learnt about the sorry state of affairs in the civic body. But there was little he could do then to turn things around.
However, less than five days into his role as the MCG commissioner, Umashankar, has cracked the whip on officials, after finding that several of them “wander in the lawn” during office hours.He has ordered that no official should leave his seat except during lunch hours.
“It has been observed that the officials do not sit in their seat during office hours and can be seen loitering in the lawn instead. This not only hampers the office work but also creates indiscipline amongst officials. Therefore, all the heads of the branches are directed to ensure that no official of their branch leaves the seat except during lunch hours and maintain the discipline/decorum of the office. For any lapse the officer concerned will be held responsible,” read the order issued on Friday.
A senior civic official told TOI, “During his interaction with the residents, the commissioner learnt that the MCG officials are unresponsive and are never found on their seats, due to which people have to keep visiting the office again and again to get their work done. They had also complained the files were not cleared and people forced to wait in the MCG office for hours together even for basic things like getting birth and death certificates. Umashankar had noted down these complaints and now he is going to get things on track.”
MCG officials said under the tenure of previous commissioner TL Satyaprakash, the officials had adopted a laid-back attitude.
“The former commissioner was handling dual charge, that of MCG chief as well as Gurgaon deputy commissioner. He used to be in the DC office during the first half of the day and in the MCG office in the latter part of the day. Since there was no one to keep a tab on their activities, the officials had a field day,” said an official from the planning branch.