Shortage of staff in the common Town Planning Office of Rajouri and Poonch districts in Rajouri town has been hampering the functioning of all the seven municipalities in the twin towns badly, thus people demanding a separate such office in Poonch district.
According to locals, several posts of lower-rung staff havebeen lying vacant since long.
“Even the post of Town Planner is lying vacant. And undersuch circumstances, the Assistant Town Planner has been looking after the worksof Town Planner,” they said, adding, “Thus inconvenience to the public at largevisiting the office mostly for permission related to starting constructionworks.”
The Chief Town Planner Office has its jurisdiction over allthe seven municipalities of Rajouri and Poonch districts, including municipalcommittees, Rajouri, Sunderbani, Nowshera, Kalakote and Thanamandi in Rajouridistrict and municipal council Poonch and municipal committee Surankote inPoonch district.
Besides dealing with routine work of permission cases ofconstruction in all the municipalities, the Town Planning Office also dealswith preparation of master plan.
Villagers claimed that besides Town Planner, the singleposts of Head Draftsman, Tracer and Junior Assistant are also lying vacant andonly one draftsman is posted against two vacancies.
President Municipal Council Poonch, Sunil Sharma said thatsoon after assuming the chair five months back, he wrote a letter to theconcerned department demanding posting of additional staff in Town PlanningOffice and to open separate office in Poonch “but a reply from the other sideis awaited till date.”
He added that department should either post adequate staffin office at Rajouri which has jurisdiction over both the districts or open aseparate office for Poonch so that public at large don’t face problems relatedto their routine works. When contacted, District DevelopmentCommissioner Poonch, Rahul Yadav, said, “The matter will be taken up with thehigher authorities soon.”