Dharamshala Municipal Corporation is under staffed: Mayor

Dharamshala, November 22, 2018: Dharamshala, the second Municipal corporation of Himachal Pradesh after Shimla was established in the year 2015, but this corporation is being run under staff. “ Shimla has 34 ward whereas Dharamshala has 17, keeping this in mind it must have half the officials to its Shimla counterpart , but we are being forced to run on a very small strength of employees . Shimla Municipal corporation have 2100 and Dharamshala MC just 121 officials. Shimla has 29 JEs and Dharamshala just 4,” said Devinder Singh Jaggi , Mayor Dharamshala Municipal corporation.

Talking to this correspondent, he said that the MC Dharamshala has written thrice to HP Government for the sanctioning of the urgently required 32 different posts, but nothing has been done so far. He further said that even the Manali council has JEs strength double to that we have. He added , “ Shimla MC has a separate wing for passing of construction work maps, whereas we have to get this done from over burdened JEs.”

He said that though under staffed, MC Dharamshala is working with full spirit. “ MC Dharamshala has issued Work tenders for the worth of 27 crore in the last 10 months. Works on many projects are in progress. Rs 7 crore payment has been made so far,’ said Jaggi. He said MC has planned to erect small street parking for mohallas having high strength of vehicles, in each ward, and the work has started in few. One way roads are being constructed to ease traffic in areas like Bagsunag, Mecleodganj and Kotwali. Parks for senior-citizens, ladies and kids shall be raised in all wards, areas already been identified, “he added.

He said that from January 2019 , door to door collection of garbage pickup scheme is being launched in all the wards for Rs 50 each house/month, shops and other establishments have to pay more.

Jaggi said that MC has come in to an understanding with two NGOs over the sterilization of stray dogs of the city and the work on this will start soon.

He said, “beside MC Dharamshala works, tenders of rs 2700 crores are floated for projects of Smart City Dharamshala.’