The Hindu : New Delhi News : Mayor's aide upsets MCD officials

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 09, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Mayor's aide upsets MCD officials

By Lalit K. Jha

NEW DELHI, AUG. 8. The office of the Delhi Mayor which is traditionally known for maintaining a low profile is in the news these days. In fact, the office is the most talked about thing in the corridors of the civic body for the past few months.

First, it was the appointment of three officials exceeding the sanctioned staff of the office of the Mayor despite technical and legal objections raised by the Municipal Commissioner that became the talk of the town. Now, it is the phone calls received by officials in MCD Zones and engineers in the field from the Mayor's secretariat seeking favour in the name of the Delhi Mayor, A. R. Verma.

Conceding that he too has received similar complaints against his office, Mr. Verma said he has already issued clarifications. "I have given strict instructions to my officials that no favours should be doled out even if any one calls from my office," he said. It is reliably learnt that the Vigilance Department has received several complaints against officials in Mayor office.

However, the presence of an official of the level of the Head Clerk along with Mr. Verma at all his meetings with top MCD officials even of the rank of Additional Commissioner and his undue interference during serious deliberations has upset senior MCD officials. "We are being asked to give replies to questions raised by a Head Clerk while the Mayor keeps quiet," complained an Additional Commissioner. At one of such meeting even the Leader of House, Satbir Singh, the Standing Committee Chairman, Mukesh Goel and the Leader of Opposition, Subhash Arya, were present and preferred to keep quite while the Head Clerk, sitting besides the Mayor, probed the Additional Commissioner.

In another instance, this junior level official publicly humiliated the Medical Superintendent of the 1,000-bed Hindu Rao Hospital where the Mayor had gone on an inspection. "Same has been the case with other senior officials of the MCD as well," a Deputy Commissioner complained. Defending the appointment of the head clerk, Mr. Verma said he was helping him out in his work as first citizen of the Capital.

Another controversial appointment has been that of a retired Additional Commissioner, who as of now is 70-years-old. However, the retired official with a questionable track record has not joined so far because of dispute on perks and salary. Although denied by Mr. Verma, it is understood that the appointment of the Additional Commissioner as an Officer on Special Duty was defended by the Mayor with the argument that this was being done at the direction of top party leaders. The third and final appointment has been that of another OSD to the Mayor in the Slums Department. The official too had a dubious track record when he was in service in the civic body. He is understood to have written against the official policy of the MCD following which not only the official magazine was closed, but also he was shifted to other department.

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