Civic body is traning ground for babus

[1]

Chennai corporation is now one of the biggest bureaucratic bodies and second only to the state secretariat.

With the fast-expanding corporation grows the clout of babus who are now administrating the capital city sprawling over 424 square kilometres. In simple terms, the historic Ripon Buildings is now the workplace of eight IAS officers, two deputy collectors, two district revenue officers and about 20,000 employees.

Prior to the expansion, the corporation had five IAS-cadre-sanctioned posts but, now, three more deputy regional commissioner posts have been created to monitor north, south and central Chennai.
“The city corporation is a place for young civil service officers to learn the local administration functions and the system is similar to that of the state government in several aspects,” recalls a senior IAS officer who has served at the Ripon Buildings.

The corporation is certainly a training ground for young guns and will expose them to different challenges and local political situations. Earlier, the young IAS officers would hate to take up assignment at the corporation headquarters as it used to be a thankless and tiresome job, but, at the same time, it’s a tough and good terrain to learn the nuances of effective administration, the official explained.

A retired chief engineer of the corporation recalls the days when then corporation commissioner M.P. Vijayakumar served well in spite of the difficulties and handled the 2006 floods in Chennai.

He also brought innovative programmes such as activity-based learning in corporation schools and handled the political turmoil between the state and corporation council. Not many local bodies or district collectorates would provide such a challenging platform, he added.

“To serve at Chennai corporation is certainly a difficult task and one has to serve almost round-the-clock to make the city look clean and neat,” points out a senior IAS official who is a state secretary.