Lucknow, Sep 11 (IANS) Lucknow Mayor Shushma Kharakwal on Thursday said she is planning to complain to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath about lax municipal officials who remain absent from their seats during working hours. For now, she has sought a report from the Commissioner on the issue.

Kharakwal said the irresponsible behaviour of the civic officials was leading to hardships to the common citizen.

“Chief Minister Adityanath has repeatedly emphasised on efficient public delivery of service. Some irresponsible officials of the civic agency are virtually negating the efforts of the CM and his team,” she said.

Kharakwal, the first citizen of Lucknow, said: “I had been receiving public complaints for some time that they don’t find civic employees on their seats. They complain that their works are stuck in offices.”

She said one of the sufferers of this official apathy was a pension applicant who has been running around to get pension for two years.

“Today, I conducted a surprise inspection of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation and apart from the Commissioner, did not find many seniors in their office,” she said.

The Mayor said she has now issued a letter to the Commissioner to share information about the whereabouts some of the senior officials who were not in their offices during her inspection.

“If they claim that they were out of the office for meetings, I want the details of the venue where they were attending the meeting. I will confirm the facts about their whereabouts,” she said.

I have sent a list of officials and sent their names to the administration and I am going to escalate the matter with CM Adityanath if it is not taken seriously, she said.

The Mayor also slammed the leaking of official and confidential reports to public from LMC offices.

“I recently inquired about a confidential report that was circulated in public domain. When I inquired from officials, they claimed ignorance about the development,” she said.

Taking a strong view of this development, the Mayor said the officials are responsible for safeguarding documents related to their departments.

“We as elected representatives of citizens are answerable to people so the officials will also have to take responsibility for such goof ups. The officials are drawing salaries from tax payers’ hard earned money, they cannot wash their hands off in cases of such laxity,” said the Mayor.

The Mayor’s outburst against civic officials comes close to similar allegations of laxity levelled by BJP MLAs, including Ministers, complaining of officials ignoring them.

A few months ago, UP Industrial Development Minister Nand Gopal Nandi had written a letter to the CM complaining that officers don’t listen to him and create hurdles in works and sitting over files.

–IANS

rch/pgh