MCG lays off 58 contractual staff

MCG commissioner Amit Khatri issued orders late Tuesday; decision due to poor performance, say officials

GURUGRAM: Coming down heavily on “non-performing” outsourced workers, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has terminated the services of 58 contractual employees, including junior engineers, with immediate effect, said officials on Wednesday.

MCG commissioner Amit Khatri passed an order regarding it on Tuesday night.

The 58 employees included 12 junior engineers (JEs) and 10 supervisors. All the workers were deputed in MCG’s market management squad, defacement squad, and polythene squad.

“The 58 workers did not adhere to targets set by the MCG for issuing challans and keeping a check on defacement, usage of polythene and encroachment in markets. Their performance was reviewed and their services were deemed surplus to MCG’s requirements as a lot of money was being spent on their salaries without any output in return. Hence, their services have been terminated with immediate effect,” said Khatri.

The development comes two months after an investigation by the MCG on 1,950 outsourced employees had found several discrepancies in the hiring process. The probe report, submitted to the civic body on September 7, highlighted possibilities of 302 ghost workers, multiple hiring against one post, needless posts, lopsided deputation of workers, unskilled workers, appointment on the recommendations of politicians and senior Haryana bureaucrats, among others.

In July, the MCG had paid ₹4 crore in salaries to about 1,900 contractual workers. At present, the civic body has about 1,800 outsourced workers.

The MCG commissioner said that the civic body is also checking on guidelines with the Haryana government regarding 27 outsourced workers above 62 years old before taking a final decision on their services.

“I have sent a letter to the state government to ascertain what the age limit for outsourced workers is. Depending on their reply the next course of action will be taken,” said Khatri.

In January last year, concerns over performance and the hiring of “excess” outsourced workers were raised by councillors during a MCG house meeting. Subsequently, the civic body formed a five-member committee consisting of MCG councillors — RS Rathee, Ravinder Yadav, Braham Prakash, Sanjay Pradhan and Subhash Singla — to investigate into the issue.

Following the submission of the investigation report, Khatri had issued directions to withhold salaries of those outsourced workers who had joined the MCG before November 2018, when the interview process of outsourced workers had commenced, but they did not turn up before the committee.

“The list of outsourced workers who had not showed up for the interview process despite seven reminders is being sent by the MCG in batches from different wings. We will commence the interview of remaining workers next month, once we get a final figure,” said Rathee, who heads the investigating committee.