Jalandhar, May 1: Thousands of teachers are waiting for their salaries since long, helpless pensioners are vainly making rounds of banks and offices of the Social Welfare Department, traders are unable to get their VAT refund for the past many years, and even sweepers are not being paid on time. But there are employees of one department, who are not only getting salaries and other perks but are also idle for over 10 years now.
“A sum of Rs 46.91 crore has been spent on the salaries and other expenses incurred on the idle staff members of one circle, three divisions and nine subdivisions of the mechanical wing of the PWD (B&R) during an unproductive period from 2011 to 2017,” revealed an audit report on the working of the department.
Apart from salaries, expenses have been incurred on travelling, medical, telephone, rent, electricity and water charges though “the entire staff of Patiala Circle, Jalandhar, Ferozepur and Patiala divisions and nine other subdivisions was rendered idle after 2007-2008”.
In July 2004, the PWD had dispensed with the practice of issuing material to contractual agencies from its stores. Henceforth, the contractual agencies were to arrange material at their own level. Due to introduction of rate system, the assignment of works to hot mix plants for preparing and supplying material to contractors and procurement were stopped. The workshops were left with no work and two diesel pumps and the foundry shop were closed, thereby rendering the entire staff deputed for these works idle after 2007-2008.
Proposals were also sent by the department to the government for shifting the idle staff to other wings of the department or converting the wing into a quality control cell or attaching it with the technical adviser to the Chief Minister as the three divisional offices under the circle were spread across the entire state.
From April 2011 to October 2017, the mechanical circle, Patiala, spent an unproductive sum of Rs 6.07 crore, the mechanical division of Ferozepur Rs 6.66 crore, Jalandhar Rs 14.71 crore and Patiala Rs 19.47 crore on salaries and other expenses.
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