RCB staff working at officials’ homes

RAWALPINDI:

Around 100 employees of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) were found to be working in the houses of top officials instead of performing duty in the field.

Sources said that the RCB has decided to recall the employees serving in the houses of the officials.

In the first phase, the sources said, 15 female and six male officials of the sanitation department have so far reported to the RCB office after notices were issued to them. The sources said that a list comprising 100 officials, who are currently performing duty at the homes of officials but taking salaries from the RCB, has been compiled in this regard. The sources said that all these employees will now have to work in the field instead of at the houses of the officials and they will be sent on beat duty after regular attendance.

It should be noted that a large number of male and female officials of the sanitation department have long been working at the homes of top officials of the RCB and the MLC, taking a toll on the lifting of garbage from various areas of the Cantonment.

The sources said that at an RCB meeting, it transpired that most of the janitorial staff were working in the houses of officials instead of being in the field and they only show up to collect salaries. In this regard, the sources said, after the scrutiny of the record, it was found that 100 male and female staff were working in the houses of government officials while the sanitation department showed their presence in the field.

On the other hand, when the staff of the sanitation department started returning to the office, officials started making telephone calls to the RCB authorities that they should not be called back from their houses, the sources said.

The RCB officials said that from now onwards, the lower staff will not be allowed to work in someone's house and no recommendation in this regard will be entertained.

Earlier, RCB Executive Officer Imran Gulzar said that a plan was under consideration to establish a temporary waste transfer station for dumping garbage before transporting the same to the landfill site.

During a media briefing, he said that around 400 tons of solid waste was generated daily in Cantonment areas and the board did not have the capacity to completely transfer the solid waste to the dumping site, which is situated 35-kilometre away from the city. Gulzar said that a temporary waste transfer station has been planned to be established away from the population.

He said that RCB vehicles will transport the waste to the transfer station from where the waste will be transported to dumping by a firm for which the service contract will be outsourced.

The CEO said that Rawalpindi Cantonment has 28 small and 14 big drains and it has been decided to clean them more than once a year. He said that the monsoon caused no loss of life or property this year. He said that an amount of Rs60 million has been collected under conservancy charges from army areas and the amount will be spent on the up-gradation of the RCB sanitation department’s transport fleet.

CEO Gulzar said that “we are not getting our due share of 40% of the water from Khanpur Dam while illegal water connections for commercial use are being regularised after heavy fines”.

The RCB executive officer said that the treatment system in the Cantonment General Hospital has been upgraded. He said that four to five officials of RCB involved in corruption have been dismissed from service while an inquiry was under way against four to five employees. He said that action was being taken against the rampant commercialisation in residential areas. This will not be allowed under any circumstances.

He said that action was being taken to prevent encroachments and some shopkeepers have also rented out the footpath in front of their shops.

Meanwhile, the Chaklala Cantonment Board has established a children's park by removing a huge garbage pit on a roadside.

Sources said that the children's park will be inaugurated on Monday (today).

The huge garbage dump pit on the side of the busiest road in Dheri Hasanabad was an inconvenience to motorists and pedestrians. Chaudhry Nauman Shaukat, a member of the Cantonment Board belonging to the PTI had proposed to convert the garbage dump into a children's park. Station commander Brigadier Salman Nazar approved the proposal and the garbage dump was shifted from there. Horticulturist Atika Nadeem presented a design for the children's park which was approved. The park has been named Chaudhry Shaukat Ali Children's Park.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2022.