Disciplinary action will be taken against those not attending the meetings without permission, Rubal Agarwal said.The PMC has warned of action against officers who remain absent from online meetings after it received complaints against many heads of civic departments not attending committee meetings despite the provision of videoconferencing.
There are various committees managing the work of the civic body, including standing committee, city improvement committee, legal committee, women and child welfare committee, tree authority and name committee. The standing committee meets every week, while other committees meet once in a fortnight to discuss different proposals related to development and policy making.
Lockdown restrictions to check the spread of Covid-19 since March led to meetings of the PMC through videoconferencing. It enabled elected members of the committee and civic officers to attend meetings from their own offices.
There are, however, complaints that many heads of civic departments are absent for these meetings without permission despite the convenience to attend them online.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Rubal Agarwal said it was being noticed that many civic department heads were absent for a meeting of the standing committee on October 27. “The chairperson and other members of the standing committee have complained over civic officers being absent for the meeting. It is a disciplinary issue if they remain absent without permission,” she said.
Agarwal said it was mandatory for certain department heads to attend the standing committee meeting, including city engineer, chief engineer of water and sewage treatment department, road department, electrical department, additional commissioners of solid waste management department, property tax department, chief accountant, deputy municipal commissioner of estate department and zonal commissioner of all five zones.
She said all concerned officers needed to be present for the meeting from the start and respond to queries raised about their department.
Disciplinary action will be taken against those not attending the meetings without permission, she added.