Chandigarh MC freezes outsourced hiring amid fiscal crisis

Mired in a crippling financial crisis, the Chandigarh municipal corporation has decided to halt the recruitment of outsourced or contractual staff.
On Monday, municipal commissioner Amit Kumar issued a directive, instructing all department heads to refrain from hiring or replacing any employees without prior approval from his office.
The decision follows a sharp rise in expenses related to outsourced manpower. Official figures reveal that MC has hired 1,645 more outsourced employees than the sanctioned posts in the current fiscal. While 5,891 posts are approved for outsourced staff, the actual number of employees recruited stands at 7,172.
“Directions have been made to stop all new recruitments in MC, looking at the financial situation. However, in case of requirement, our priority will be to fill up the vacant regular posts, according to eligibility criteria. Also, directions have been made not to even replace the employees without permissions,” said commissioner Amit Kumar, adding that he will even soon issue official orders in this regard.
City development at a standstill since May
In May, the ongoing fiscal mess had forced MC to halt all development works across the city. Such is the crisis that the corporation has even put the already long-pending road carpeting work on hold and may even struggle to pay out staff’s salaries in the coming months. Compounding its woes, even the UT administration has refused to release any additional grant.
As per MC’s budget estimates of 2023-24, 2,425 regular employees were on the rolls and 3,161 regular posts were lying vacant. The same year, 5,527 outsourced employees were working against the total sanctioned posts of 5,891.
However, in the MC 2024-2025 budget estimates, the strength of outsourced employees already working in MC alarmingly increased to 7,172, with no explanation.
The budget estimates also said against the 5,589 total regular posts, only 2,362 positions were filled and 3,227 were lying vacant.
As per MC’s official figures, it spent a total of ₹493 crore till September 30 this fiscal. While ₹145 crore went towards the salaries of regular staff, the figure was ₹147 crore when it comes to contractual staff.
Only ₹59 crore were spent on capital (development) works in the first six months of the fiscal, MC stats revealed.
UT adviser, mayor had questioned hiring of contractual staff
It is worth mentioning that UT adviser Rajeev Verma and city mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor had also previously raised objections over recruitment of outsourced/contractual staff.
UT adviser had questioned MC as to why hundreds of contractual workers had been hired when regular posts were lying vacant and why MC was spending more on contractual staff than on regular employees.
The mayor on the other hand, through a letter to UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria, had demanded an inquiry from an independent agency to look into the matter of recruitment in MC.
The mayor had said, “We do not know whether the process of calling applicants/candidates has been adopted to fill these posts on an outsourced basis or not. Whether the eligibility and experience for this post have been scrutinised by the authorities or not?”
Councillor flags JE hiring his brother
City councillor Ram Chander Yadav on Monday submitted a written complaint to the municipal commissioner, alleging a junior engineer had illegally hired his own brother.
“The junior engineer removed an employee, who was working at the community centre in Dhanas, and appointed his own brother as a supervisor. The junior engineer, along with the area sub-divisional officer, is also taking ‘cleaning charges’ from each person booking the community centre, but not paying it forward to MC. These acts like hiring his own brother and illegally collecting money from people are prima facie unlawful and I strongly demand an inquiry. Necessary action should be taken,” Yadav wrote in his complaint.