CMDA likely to surrender 75 posts, reorganise staff structure

The former chief planner of CMDA Krishna Kumar said there has been a veil of secrecy on the new service regulations.

CHENNAI: Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has proposed to surrender more than 75 posts to the government and is likely to discuss the reorganisation of staff structure based on new service regulations during the authority meeting to be held on Thursday.

Although the proposed service regulations have been a bone of contention as they lacked transparency with the opinion of the employees for whom it is being framed have been ignored, it is learnt that CMDA is awaiting approval from the government.

The former chief planner of CMDA Krishna Kumar said there has been a veil of secrecy on the new service regulations. “How could service rules be framed without the participation of employees as well as retired officials? The entire process has been a sham as the draft was never put up on the website so that it could elicit the response of employees. It should have been placed before the authority only after taking in suggestions of the employees,” said Krishna Kumar, who took voluntary retirement earlier this year.

He said while the member secretary and housing secretary would claim the new regulation has the backing of officials, it is a well-known fact that officials have been voiceless in most of the decision-making process. “While serving officials can’t disobey the official dictum, only those who have retired would be able to provide the appropriate feedback for the betterment of CMDA and Tamil Nadu youngsters,” said the former chief planner.

According to the information available, of the five existing chief planners, one post is proposed to be redeployed in Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority. The rest will head the area plans unit, area development unit, master plan unit and transport divisions with the senior most chief planner to be re-designated as planner-in-chief. Similarly, additional four posts of senior planners are being proposed and the strength will rise to 10.

Meanwhile, of the 23 posts of deputy planner, one will be redeployed to CUMTA. Similarly, of the 41 posts of assistant planner, one will be deployed to CUMTA. A new post of a chief administrative officer is being created by surrendering the post of chief accounts officer. The total savings as per the restructuring is expected to be around Rs 10 lakh, sources said.

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