Pending works greet govt staff returning from poll duties

NT NETWORK

Margao

Post elections, there has been little relief for hundreds of government staff working in various departments of district collectorate as they are greeted by work that has piled up in the run up to the elections and the citizens are also on the receiving end.

South Goa district administration office is slowly limping back to normalcy 48 hours after the elections were held with many staff drawn for election duty slowly returning back. However, they have been welcomed by mounting files of pending works.

An employee, requesting anonymity, said that nearly 40 per cent of staff was drawn for election-related duty while day-to-day administration work was hampered as the dealing staff could not cope up with the magnitude of work.

The employee said that a lot of work has piled up and it will take several weeks before the day-do-day functioning is normalised. People are facing problems but staff too have limitations and there is little that we can do.

The employee further said that a lot of vacancies are also yet to be filled while replacements for staff availing child care leave etc are yet to
be put in place. This does create additional burden on the existing staff to provide effective services.

A senior citizen A Fernandes (74) informed, “This is a regular story with the district administration as the services are very poor. The government had long back announced time-bound services which never got implemented. While elections happen almost every year, the government should form an election cell, this will not only provide employment but also ensure that the common man doesn’t have to suffer.”

Geeta Naik, aged 58 years said, “This is my fifth visit to the collector’s office to get some important documents but each time I have been sent back saying they are not ready as there is no staff. This has to be addressed.”

Another woman said, “I have been running from pillar to post to get some important documents however, for the last 37 days all my efforts have been in vain. They say it will take another 20 days as the staff was drawn for election duty, but it is the people who are at the receiving end.”