City in rapid expansion, civic body yet to catch up

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is struggling with significant staff shortage even as thousands of vacancies remain unfilled.
According to the GHMC, it has approximately 4,500 permanent staff members currently. However, it is estimated that more than 4,000 positions across various departments remain vacant.

This is in stark contrast to the situation when the civic body was just Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH).In the 2000s, the city’s population was just over 50 lakh, and the erstwhile MCH had a workforce of more than 10,000 employees across seven circles.
Despite a massive increase in the city’s population, which is now estimated to be around 1.1 crore, the number of employees has not grown proportionately. The GHMC has been unable to expand its workforce to meet the demands of the growing population, potentially impacting its efficiency and effectiveness in delivering essential services to citizens.
The number of outsourced personnel in various departments, including sanitation, entomology, veterinary, horticulture, and transport, stands at over 25,000. This figure pales in comparison to other major cities, such as Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. The three cities currently have an approximate population of over 1.2 crore, 2 crore and 3 crore respectively.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) each employ more than 1 lakh municipal staff, significantly higher than Hyderabad.
Considering the city’s substantial population, experts suggest that the number of civic staff should be around 80,000 to effectively cater to the needs of residents.
Officials said that GHMC is in the process of hiring 200 town planning surveyors and an equal number of junior assistants for its administration department.
“In order to facilitate the recruitment of the junior assistants, we have reached out to the state government, seeking its assistance in conducting the hiring process through TSPSC,” said a senior official in GHMC.
Harish Dagar, a social activist, said: “The city also faces cleanliness issues with garbage collection not carried out at as required. As the city’s population grows and its boundaries expand, it is essential for GHMC to ensure it has enough manpower to provide reliable services to the taxpayers, who rightfully expect a clean and well-maintained living environment.”
Retirements are also adding to the mounting vacancies in various departments of the civic body. A few days ago, 38 employees of sanitation, taxation and town planning wings had retired.