Salary of 16 GDA staffers held back for delaying work

Ghaziabad: The vice-chairperson of Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA), Kanchan Verma, has withheld a month’s salary of 16 junior engineers for failing to complete work within the time specified on two portals of the development agency and the UP government. Verma has recently issued an order saying that the salaries of more employees would be held back if the two portals show pending work.
“According to the office order issued recently, the salaries of 12 junior engineers in the property department and four in the enforcement department have been withheld as they failed to wrap up work within the stipulated time,” said Verma. “They have been given time to finish off the work, failing which a departmental inquiry could also be initiated against them,” she added.
Verma said she had withheld her own salary for 10 days when projects failed to be completed in time. “As GDA vice-chairperson, it is my overall responsibility to oversee the progress of progress. Since the order is binding on all employees, including the vice-chairperson, I delayed my own salary of 10 days and availed it only when 80% of a project was cleared,” said Verma. “The erring employees were also found to be lagging in clearing complaints raised through the UP government’s janhit portal,” Verma added.
The GDA had recently introduced a single-window system in an attempt to ensure transparency and accountability in the overall working of the agency. The window system was created to attend to public queries, complaints and keep track on work progress of different departments.
Each project generated in the system has been assigned a time period, under which the department concerned will have to wrap it up. The work progress in the system is directly monitored by the GDA vice-chairperson, secretary and chief engineer. Any inordinate delay invites explanation from the department or the desk concerned and action, such as withholding salaries, is initiated in case of unsatisfactory replies.