Census: employees have to be in offices every alternate day
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, APRIL 1
Finally, employees drafted for census work will have to report to his or her department every alternate day to ensure that the administration does not suffer because of the census operations.
After much confusion on the matter, the Director of Census operations on Thursday issued a circular stating that the employees requisitioned for census work would have to work on alternate days in their offices and on the field.
Deputy Collector, Margao Johnson Fernandes has said the air of uncertainty has been finally cleared with the Director, Census operations finally asking the employees to work one day on the field and report the next day to the department for routine duties.
Given the clarification, officials in the know said the heads of departments should now insist that the employees report for official duties on alternate days.
Meanwhile, Margao Municipal Council witnessed huge queues of citizens for official work in the corridors of the civic body on Thursday morning.
The citizens were left agitated after they were told that some of the employees have been roped in by the authorities for the census work which got underway from Thursday.
When the citizens questioned the skeleton staff in the civic body, they pointed out that the computers are not functioning and that the staff has gone for the census work.
A citizen Jairam Naik, who had come to inquire regarding his RTI application demanded to know the people who should be contacted by the citizens for the official work.
Another citizen maintained that the Chief Officer Prasanna Acharya was conspicuous by his absence in the morning when a delegation went to meet him and convey their grievances over the absence of staff.
Incidentally, the Chief Officer is hardly making his presence felt in the civic body over the last fortnight and on most occasions, the files are taken to the district collectorate for his approvals.
Margao Municipal Chairperson Savio Coutinho admitted that the regular absence of the administrative head in the civic body may help some of the unscrupulous staffers to stay away from work on the pretext of the ongoing census work.
