No full-time chiefs for water agencies

CHENNAI: The state government has posted two senior officials, chief electoral officer Satyabrata Sahoo and Greater Chennai Corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan, to hold additional charge of Metrowater and Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board respectively. Municipal administration and water supply minister S P Velumani heads the agencies.
The chief electoral officer will now report to a minister, an elected representative. Sahoo will hold additional charge as Metrowater managing director for three months in the place of G Prakash, said an order issued by chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan on Thursday. Commissioner of municipal administration, Prakash, held additional charge of Metrowater for a month until Sahoo took over. Currently, the agency works on several water supply schemes in the added areas of Chennai and tenders for the upcoming desalination plant in Perur.

Sahoo had completed only a five-month stint with the water agency before being shortlisted by the government among three candidates for the post in the poll panel this February. Much to the bureaucracy’s surprise, the government sought the concurrence of the commission to appoint Sahoo as MD, Metrowater for six months. The election commission turned down the request and spared its officer for three months. “It is an undesirable practice that compromises the integrity of the commission, state and the officer,” said a senior bureaucrat.

Karthikeyan is already overloaded with work at Ripon Buildings, with civic affairs of the expanded Chennai corporation requiring attention. He has been given additional charge of managing director of TWAD Board in place of C N Maheswaran who left on April 9 for a month-long administrative training in Mussoorie. “Karthikeyan has been shuttling back and forth between TWAD board and Ripon Buildings. It is neither good for the corporation nor for TWAD,” a source said. TWAD maintains 553 combined water supply schemes and supplies around 1,500 million litres a day, covering eight corporations, 66 municipalities, 324 town panchayats and 47,136 rural habitations. The agency is now required to work on contingency plans with water crisis looming large. From digging infiltration wells and borewells to laying pipelines and finding new water sources, the agency’s hands are full.