MUMBAI, OCT 7: Municipal commissioner K Nalinakshan is yet to act on his threat, issued a month ago, that he would sack nearly 500 civic employees who had not been reporting for duty for more than six months. Not only has no employee been sacked, but not even a single proposal to this effect has been placed before the standing committee for approval. The standing committee has to pass the proposal before the services of an employee are terminated.At a meeting of heads of department over a month ago, Nalinakshan had asked the senior civic officials to initiate action against the erring employees. He had announced that if the absentees did not report for work in a fortnight, they would be taken to task. However, no action has been taken, though none of the absentees have reported back for duty.
When contacted today, Nalinakshan said those who had not reported for duty for over six months were 1,000 in number and not 5,000 as reported earlier. ``Right now we are targetting only those who have been absentfor over six months. We will later act against those who have been absent for over three months,'' he said. However, he said he was not aware of the number of such employees. ``We will find out soon,'' he added.
He ruled out suspension of the staff as immediate action. ``They will have to be paid suspension allowance,'' he said, adding this is not a remedy to stop the largescale absenteeism going on for years in the corporation.
Deputy municipal commissioner (DMC) in charge of personnel S B Patil informed that notices had been sent to the absentees and added the corporation was waiting to hear from them. Additional municipal commissioner (AMC) Ajit Kumar Jain was not sure how many notices had been sent, but he assured that all the employees would be covered. ``In some cases, the employees could not be traced in Mumbai, so we have despatched the notices to their hometowns. Hence it is taking time,'' he explained. ``In such cases, we will have to give them some more time before taking any harsh decision,''he said.
However, even if the administration gets cracking against absentees, there is every possibiity of them being protected by the standing committee members. When the administration this week placed a proposal before the standing committee asking for approval to suspend a peon Rizwan M H Sheikh for proceeding on long leaves without initimation in the last three years, the standing committee members turned it down, saying the peon should be given one more chance.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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