Post of Plan Coordinator vacant at Corporation

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For several months now, the City Corporation has been demanding that the State Government, first the LDF and now the UDF, should fill its post of the Plan Coordinator which is lying vacant. But none heeded. Now that the local body is engaged in Plan preparation, absence of an exclusive official to handle the task has given it a serious headache.  For one thing, the Council is new, just eight months old. That too, with a majority of fresh faces and inexperienced hands. Though the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor are serving their third terms in the Council, coordinating the Annual Plan along with the regular duties has pushed them to a rigorous routine. Lack of professional hands to prepare the Plan, that too of the largest Corporation with 100 wards, is affecting its quality, agrees the Mayor herself.  ‘’We have formed monitoring committees to help the new councillors to  contribute to the preparation of the Plan. Old councillors are also being invited to provide help. But lack of a coordinator is hampering the exercise,’’ Mayor K Chandrika said.  According to her, the Plan preparation is largely becoming a circus with the Standing Committee Chairpersons burning the midnight oil to meet the deadline. The first deadline has already got over and the Plan is to be ready in the next couple of days to meet the extended deadline.   The transfer of many experienced hands like the officer who was in charge of the SC (Special Component Project for SC) implementation, who has been moved to a municipality, has also had its toll on the local body. ‘’Unscientific transfers will hugely affect our working, at a time when we are short of hands and time,’’ Chandrika said. According to her, by the time the new officer will learn the basics of fund utilisation, the local body would have suffered serious setbacks.