Sivasagar Municipal Board draws flak for 'poor' work culture

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

JOYSAGAR, Sept 19:  Proxy and disobeying senior authority’s advice as well as urgent official orders have paralyzed the ancient civic body of historic Sivasagar town in recent times.

Sivasagar Municipal Board (SMB) has a glorified and golden past as this local civic body has just completed 100 years. It was formed in 1916 during the colonial era. But in recent times, the Sivasagar Municipal Board has proved a total failure in serving the people. The Sivasagar Municipal Board was such a body which was able to collect a huge amount of money each month as revenue under different heads from the citizens and local traders. But despite sufficient fund, the SMB in recent times has been uble to serve the people of the town only for the alleged lack of dedication of the employees and workers towards their respective duties.

 It is also alleged that even most of the office bearers of SMB do not follow the necessary and urgent official orders issued by the chairperson of the board. Moreover, the grassroot workers are also following the path of the office workers and do not obey their superiors during duty hours. The whole tion is going to observe the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 as a day of ‘Clean and Green India’. For this noble purpose, every civic and town body of the country is focusing on cleanliness and plantation drives in their respective towns. But Sivasagar Municipal Board is lagging behind as there is allegedly little interest among the employees and workers of the board to achieve the noble goal through their work culture.

The employees and workers of SMB have been staging frequent strikes for fulfillment of various demands and this has affected the various developmental and other welfare works. Sources said that three months’ pending salary has already been distributed among the employees and workers by the SMB authorities. But for some unknown reason, the work force of the local body is not involving themselves in the various duties. As a consequence, the people are suffering and the historic town of Sivasagar has become a neglected and dirty place in entire Upper Assam. A source has revealed that this situation has taken place due to a political conflict within the board for power.