Elections are lucrative for officers but cost a fortune to public funds

[R K Garg]

Democracy at a Price-I
LS poll cost UT Rs 1.38 cr
Rs 22 lakh honorarium to officials raises eyebrows
Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 24
The conduct of the May 13 Lok Sabha election for the local parliamentary seat cost the Chandigarh Administration dear, with about Rs 1.38 crore being spent on it and surprisingly, a substantial part, amounting to over Rs 41 lakh, went for the payment of remuneration to the polling parties and honorarium to the staff on election duty.
However, the “across the board” payment of the honorarium of about Rs 22.24 lakh to the staff, including senior officials, in addition to their salaries, has raised many an eyebrow. While Rs 22.24 was given for officials’ honorarium, the minimum amount of Rs 34,072 was spent on the purchase of service stamps.
A perusal of the information obtained by Sector 27 resident RK Garg through RTI shows that the administration spent over Rs 8 lakh on refreshment. As much as Rs 1.44 lakh was spent under the miscellaneous expenditure.
Interestingly, the administration also a hired a consultant, who was paid Rs 77, 581.While the administration has a fleet of vehicles, nearly Rs 2 lakh was spent on the hiring of private vehicles.
The Chief Electoral Officer-cum-Adviser to the administrator tops the list of beneficiaries with Rs 80,000 honorarium followed by the Returning Officer and the then the Deputy Commissioner with Rs 61,540. The joint Chief Electoral Officer has claimed an honorarium of Rs 13,800. The 12 AROs - junior IAS officers, PCS and HCS officials- were richer from an amount of Rs 13,388 to Rs 33,490.The highest amount among the AROs was claimed by the then Assistant Estate Officer.
Besides officials, 40 trainers of EVMs have been paid honorarium of Rs 6,000 each, while 13 master trainers had been given honorarium of Rs 8,000 each. To top it all, 15 officials, who worked in various cells for the conduct of the general elections, pocketed Rs 10,000 each.
According to information , 124 drivers and other staff were paid honorarium of Rs 5,000 each. As many as 12 other staff deputed for the elections were given Rs 8,000 each. Besides, there was wide disparity in the amounts - ranging from Rs 11,875 to Rs 43,125 - kept at the disposal of the 12 AROs for disbursal among the supporting staff. “Though the payment of the honorarium may be legal as the officials were directly associated with the election work and ‘were working round the clock’, yet the question of ethics has come into play since they were also paid their salaries for the respective period," RK Garg, who sought the information through the RTI , said.
Garg claimed that from March 2 till the completion of the electoral process, the entire administrative machinery had come to a standstill as they were engaged in the election-related work. When the officials were performing only election-related work then why should they be paid both salary and the election honorarium, Garg asked? A senior official asserted that since almost all officials, particularly the police officials were engaged in the electoral work, the payment of honorarium to the “select few” smacked of favouritism. The “non-uniformity” in the payment of honorarium led to heart burning among the officials, who were not paid on the pattern of their colleagues, he added.
(To be continued)

[R K Garg]

IInd part of Polls cost a fortune


LS Poll
Democracy at a Price-II
‘Unrelated’ officials were also sanctioned honorarium
Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 25
Even as eyebrows are being raised at the disbursement of over Rs 22 lakh as honorarium to officials of the Chandigarh Administration related to the election work for the May 13 Lok Sabha elections, certain officials, "not related" to the poll process, were also sanctioned the honorarium.

In fact, these six officials, including Joint Secretary (Home), a senior HCS officer, are among 41 officials, who are yet to receive the honorarium amounting to over Rs 3 lakh even after over eight months after the conduct of the election for the Chandigarh parliamentary seat.

Interestingly, among these officials is an IAS probationer officer and 17 daily wage workers. While the IAS officer is waiting for an amount of Rs 21,650, the HCS officer is yet to get an amount of Rs 34,900.The daily wage workers are yet to receive Rs 1,500 each for the work they did for the enforcement staff during the poll.

A careful look at the information obtained under the RTI Act by Sector 27 resident RK Garg revealed that besides the HCS officer, other officials "not related" to the election work included a superintendent, a senior assistant, two steno typists, a junior assistant, a jamadar and gestetner operator.

The official reason for the non-payment is cited as "non-availability of sufficient funds".

It may be mentioned that the administration had spent about Rs 1.38 crore - more than the official amount spent by all contesting candidates - on the holding of the May 13 poll. A substantial part - over Rs 41 lakh - has gone for the payment of the remuneration to the polling parties and honorarium to the staff for election duty.
(To be continued)

[javeed_khan]

The state of affairs in our country is so bad that even God will say sorry to head this country. On paper everything looks very fine but when u dig deeper cans of rotten worms will come out. In Government organisations the money comes easy. In my organisation Over time is distributed like Prasad to the employees. THis is done to keep the unions mouth shut to all the malpractices and corruption . I tried with the top man of the organisation but he also turned out to be party to it.

[R K Garg]

Dear Sir,
PLease give little more details about your organisation.May be I can help you to dis out something fruitful.

R K Garg

[javeed_khan]

Dear Mr. garg,

Since i am in a very a psu where corruption is rampant and mismanagement is severe. People does not want anybody to tell outsiders about the organisation. Even they had put a notice that "beware of RTI activisit they ask for info and trouble u so dont give any info."

I can provide u with info on our e mail id but not in an open forum.

javeed

[R K Garg]

Private message.Please trace my contact number of internet or contact at 0XXXXXXXXX or mail at xxx@yyy.zzz.
This is aprivate mesasge as you are not willing to come ourt publically.

Regards

R K Garg

[R K Garg]

Dear Karira,
Mr Javed is willing to disclose the issues but in private only.How can we contact him.Please help

R K Garg

[R K Garg]

How a member can express his issues in private.Can any member help me
R K Garg

[karira]

Originally Posted by R K Garg

How a member can express his issues in private.Can any member help me
R K Garg

You can do so by using the PM (Personal Messaging) facility.

However, Mr Javeed does not have the privilege of a PM facility since he has still not reached the milestone number of posts - 25 posts - for getting this facility.

[R K Garg]

I think you can use PM facility ti inform me details of Mr Javes so taht I can communicate with him directly.

R K Garg