Outside officers hold top posts in NMC works department, local engineers deprived of promotions

In the Nagpur Municipal Corporation's most important department, the works department, the practice of sidelining local-cadre engineers and bringing in officers on deputation from the state government's Public Works Department (PWD) and other departments shows no sign of stopping. Officers are being sent from government departments not only as chief engineer but to posts from superintending engineer to executive engineer.

Continued appointment of outside officers to the department's highest posts has caused deep resentment among the corporation's own engineers. At present, all top posts in the works department are held by officers on deputation.

The chief engineer's post created by the government for the corporation is filled only by deputation. Under the rules, Leena Upadhye, who belongs to the public works cadre and has been working in the corporation as a superintending engineer, has now been promoted as chief engineer. However, the superintending engineer posts in both the PWD and water supply departments are also held by deputation officers.

Meanwhile, a corporation executive engineer has been given charge of a superintending engineer's post, and that post has been kept vacant. The corporation's own superintending engineer has been given only the responsibility of maintaining the corporation building.

In the water supply department, Shreta Banerjee, an officer of the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran, has been on deputation for years. The mayor had earlier raised questions about her work. The House had decided to send her back to her parent department, but there is reluctance about her going back. Naresh Borkar, a former executive engineer in the corporation, has meanwhile been promoted and returned to the post of superintending engineer.

Six PWD engineers are currently working as executive engineers at the corporation headquarters. They include officers of the World Bank division, who are handling a major city project such as Package-4.

The engineers' biggest grievance is that qualified and experienced officers who have served the department for 30 years are retiring as executive engineers without promotion. Earlier, Prakash Urade got the chance to work as chief engineer for the first time after 31 years of service, but after that the old system of deputation again took over.

The Nagpur Municipal Corporation engineers' association has openly alleged that the government is deliberately not promoting the corporation's local engineers. The association has clearly demanded that the posts of chief engineer and superintending engineer be reserved only for the corporation cadre.