Faridabad civic body building in ruins for decades, staff seek repairs

Faridabad: The zonal office building of the Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, (MCF) in Ballabhgarh is in a dilapidated condition. According to reports, the repair work of the 48-year-old building has been pending for long.

According to sources in the department, the building, inaugurated in December 1975, has been declared unsafe.

However, the administrative tasks are still going on there, as a result of which the lives of employees and visitors are at risk.

“It is ironic that the staff members responsible for providing basic civic amenities are working in a dilapidated building,” said an employee. “A majority of 26 rooms are in poor condition as these have not been maintained in the past two decades,” said an official, adding that the cement and plaster of walls and ceiling had either peeled off or were frequently falling off, posing a threat to the employees. Almost all rooms have turned obsolete.

“The employees have had a narrow escape in the past after the plaster from the ceiling fell off in Room Number 18 at least twice,” said another employee.

Ballabhgarh is one of the three zones of the MCF and is headed by a Joint Commissioner. Nearly 250 staff members are employed at the office.

According to reports, though it was proposed last year that the repair work of the building would be taken up by the engineering wing of the MCF, the proposal got shelved due to a cost-related objection.

The civic body is also facing acute shortage of staff and machinery as the present number of employees and machinery is very low in comparison to the population.

Naresh Shastri, president of the Nagarpalika Karmachari Sangh, said the government had failed to recruit adequate staff, resulting in a complete mess. He said the outsourcing policy of garbage disposal had failed despite huge funds having been spent.

MCF Executive Engineer OP Kardam said a tender of Rs 25 lakh had already been released for the repair work. An estimated amount of Rs 24 crore had also been submitted for the approval regarding the construction of a new building here, he added.