maya's memorials

24 Oct 2012

Hindustan Times

M Tariq Khan

tariq.khan@hindustantimes.com

BSP memorials workforce to be cut drastically

LUCKNOW: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) memorials would have to fend for themselves with a much less workforce. Against 5,700 workers presently, only 400 employees would now manage the monuments. Their upkeep would be done with the interest earned on the R200 crore corpus set up during the BSP regime.

The BSP government had imposed a ban on spending the yield from this corpus for any other purpose except on functions to mark the death and birth anniversaries of party ideologues. “We had released R1 crore for the memorials/parks maintenance recently. But henceforth, this would have to be taken care of by the memorial committee from the interest earned on the corpus,” said a senior government official.

The proposals were mooted at a meeting presided by chief secretary Jawed Usmani on Tuesday with members of the panel formed to downsize memorial staff and suggest better utilization of open spaces and buildings in and around these memorials. “We have been asked to incorporate some changes after which a final report would be submitted,” said a senior official, who attended the meeting.

According to sources, the panel has recommended outsourcing of all cleaning and maintenance related services presently being undertaken by 3,000 safai karamcharis, a large number of who may have to be retrenched. Minus the 430 employees, who look after a grand memorial in Noida, majority of the staff is posted in the three BSP monuments, namely, Ambedkar Memorial in Gomti Nagar, the Bauddh Vihar Shanti Upvan and Kanshi Ram Smarak in Lucknow. They have little or no work to do. “We may fill up existing vacancies in tourism, culture and the LDA by transferring some of these officials to these posts,” said the official, adding that additional sources of income are also being explored

“Senior officials are keen to rent out the well-furnished administrative block (I) building of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Sthal to the National Investigating Agency. The NIA is keen to take it on rent,” he said. Another proposal being vetted is to lend it to the round-the-clock call centre-cumhelpline for the girls to be launched in November, the announcement for which has already been made by the chief minister. Also on the anvil are new service rules for the 800 security personnel of the special security force that guards these memorials round the clock. “They would report to the memorial management committee which would regulate their role and duties now,” said the official.