State municipal affairs and urban development department has issued a stern warning to the urban local bodies against appointment of casual workers on monthly remuneration basis without state government’s approval.

“The state government shall not take any responsibility for regularisation of workers who have been appointed without prior written approval of the state government…….This restriction, however, does not apply workers engaged in terms of the provisions of West Bengal Urban Employment Scheme, 2010…. In order to prevent diversion of funds to nondevelopmental activities to pay for such “unauthorisedly appointed staff”, the state government may withhold grants to the urban local bodies in case such unauthorised recruitments come to its notice,” read the notification. The move comes close on the heels of chief minister Mamata Banerjee pulling up former mayor of Howrah Municipal Corporation Rathin Chakraborty over appointment of 419 contractual staff without finance department’s approval. During the administrative review meeting for Howrah district on 19 August, Miss Banerjee had clearly mentioned that no development funds can be diverted for paying the remuneration of staff when Mr Chakraborty had said that he had arranged money from the municipality’s funds. Miss Banerjee had also announced conducting an audit of municipalities to examine whether funds were being utilised as per the financial rules.

A senior official of the department said that some Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have in the past recruited staff beyond sanctioned staff pattern and without the prior approval of the department.

“This is a serious departure from rules and procedures. So the ULBs have been advised not to engage such staff even if the ULB proposes to pay them from their own resources, without prior written approval of the department,” he said.

According to the official, recruiting people without due procedure and without obtaining prior approval leads to several complications. Firstly, as these posts are beyond the approved staff pattern, they cannot be paid through the grants provided by the government for the purpose of payment of salaries to employees. Next, such recruitments lead to legal challenges and staff recruited without prior approval cannot be provided service benefits and post retirement benefits at par with regular staff.

These staff often move courts for obtaining orders for such payments creating embarrassing situation for the government, the official said, adding, that diverting project funds to pay for these staff is not permitted and completely irregular, the official added.