NEW DELHI: The need to strengthen the Delhi Development Authority as a world-class urban management authority with greater autonomy and effective professionalism from the board to the functional level has been underlined by the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, in its report on "Restructuring and Reorganisation of the DDA''.

The report, prepared by a team comprising A. A. Firdausi, Umeshwar Pandey, Sudarsanam Padam and B. S. Chetty, states in the preface that to meet the growing demand and challenges the DDA should modernise itself and inculcate more professionalism in its management and working style.

To begin with, the report suggests, the composition of the DDA governing body has to be enlarged with induction of renowned professionals. It has been suggested that new posts of two members, one for Personnel and Administration and the other for Planning and Architecture, be created. Also, the Delhi Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly should be included in the Board.

Upgrading of various posts, like that of Vice-Chairman to that of Secretary of Government of India, has been suggested to improve decision-making. It has also been recommended that the practice of bringing in officials on deputation be discouraged as it leads to de-motivation of internal people whose promotional avenues get blocked and efforts be made to absorb deputationists through attractive remuneration packages and incentives.

At a time when the issue of what role the DDA would play in the future of Delhi is being debated, the report provides several answers. It says the DDA has to identify activities that could be treated as "profit centres'' along with respective rights and responsibilities.

Construction agency

Since the DDA is required to construct 2.4 million additional dwelling units by 2021 at the rate of nearly 1 lakh per year, the report has also recommended that it should create a housing construction agency that would be a self-sustained unit independently responsible for designing, constructing and maintaining properties as per the plan developed by the Authority.

Since the DDA has a vast human resource pool, the report has recommended that it open an urban consulting cell, which would also generate additional revenue.

The report has called for making the monitoring mechanism highly effective as "in the past many lapses occurred due to non-availability of effective monitoring tools to fix accountability for timely delivery of the assigned tasks''. Also, it has pointed out that "there is an urgent need to augment and professionalise the human resource development activities to train and equip the internal stakeholders so that the promised targets are achieved''.

`Abolish ACR'

More specifically, the report states that lack of promotions and disproportionate promotions has been very de-motivating and recommended that there be one-time promotion to all those stagnant for over 12 years. Also it has called for doing away with the system of annual confidential report as it is used as an instrument to punish those who are not liked by their bosses. It says a transparent system of memorandum of understanding between two officials against agreed deliverables would be better as it would also help in evolving fast track promotions.

Separation scheme

An early separation scheme has also been recommended to prepare an inventory of officials due to retire in the next five to ten years and the need to induct fresh and young employees has been underlined in the DDA where there has been a fresh recruitment freeze for 20 years now. A comprehensive computerisation programme has also been suggested for streamlining the DDA functioning.

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