Meetings, lectures, training sessions ‘affecting’ health of WRD officers


* WRD emphasises on video-conferencing to enhance efficiency of officers

By Kartik Lokhande 
The efficiency levels of more than 500 senior officers in Water Resources Department (WRD) has gone down due to poor health. And, their poor health is a result of attending various meetings, lectures, training sessions as part of official work throughout the State. This is not an off-the-cuff remark from a layman, but official observation of WRD.
Taking a serious cognisance of ‘adverse impact’ on health of officers, WRD has now decided to make optimum utilisation of video-conferencing facility available at various district-level offices. The idea behind this is, sources said, to ensure that most of the senior officers stay at respective headquarters and also save time and money of the machinery. WRD has issued a circular in this regard on October 16.
As per the circular, many a time the senior officers have to rush for meetings in Mumbai or other parts of Maharashtra arranged at the eleventh hour. This rush affects health of the officers and it results in deterioration in their efficiency levels. The adverse impact on health of officers affects office work, and it is not possible for them to keep an effective supervision on the construction works of projects. Of course, the officers attending meeting, training sessions, discussions, and lectures in Government establishments will have to maintain a record of the same.
Already, said an official, video-conferencing facility has been made available at district-level offices of WRD. In 10 senior-level offices, multi-party facility is available; and 18 district-level headquarters have two-party facility. Considering this, at a time, eight offices can be connected with each other for a meeting. If all the offices at divisional-level start making good use of video-conferencing facility, it will result in senior officers staying at given headquarters.
As per the circular issued recently, it has been made mandatory to organise meetings through video-conferencing. In exceptional circumstances, meetings will have to be attended by officers concerned in person, but the reasons for the same will have to be recorded. The field-level officers have been informed that they will not be called to Mantralaya regularly, and most of the times the discussion will be held through video-conferencing. The respective offices have been directed to appoint an eligible persons as ‘Co-ordinating Officer’ and Assistant to ensure that the facility of video-conferencing is functional 24x7.
The video-conferencing facility is available at Mantralaya in Mumbai, and headquarters of five Irrigation Development Corporations (IDCs) including Vidarbha IDC at Nagpur, Chief Engineer (Special Projects) office in Amravati, Maharashtra Engineering Research Institute at Nashik, Water and Land Management Institute at Aurangabad, Superintending Engineer (KDC) at Pune etc. Under VIDC at Nagpur, two offices at Bhandara and Chandrapur have video-conferencing facility. Similarly, under the office of Chief Engineer (Special Projects) at Amravati, four offices at Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, and Washim have the facility. 

(Published in 'The Hitavada' CityLine on October 22, 2014)

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