The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has the responsibility to run the city, has been functioning with 40% less workforce. Most of the departments of the civic body has vacant posts for a long time.
The civic body has around 64 different departments and except for three departments, all the departments are having vacant posts. Some of the departments are having more vacant post than the number of posts filled. Like the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department has a provision of 34,114 posts. However, only 14,472 posts are filled while remaining 19,642 posts are lying vacant.
Similarly, the sewage treatment department is also working with lower than its required strength. Planning, removal of encroachment and vigilance departments are working with full strength.
The BMC has total 1,51,680 posts across 64 departments of which 1,04,743 posts are filled and 46,937 posts are lying vacant.
Ravi Raja, Congress corporator and leader of opposition in the BMC said that the civic administration does not want to fill these posts as it wants to fetch benefits to private contractors by hiring people on contract.
Even health, education, hospitals, water supply, hydraulic engineering departments are facing staff crunch. Hydraulic engineering has a provision of 11,446 staffs. But, it has been working with only 6,651 staffs. Even the health department has 3,122 posts and the Mumbai Fire Brigade has 2,003 posts are lying vacant.
A senior official from the general administration said that the civic body is spending around 40% of total expenditure on the establishment and it cannot increase further. "There is a limitation that how much can be spent on the establishment and if more money is spent on establishments, city's development project will affect," said the official. However, there is no clarity over people are being hired on contract when there is provision for posts.