Chandigarh Admin issues showcause notices to several officials

Assistant Estate officer (AEO) Manish Lohan, while speaking to The Indian Express, said, “Showcause notices have been issued to all officials asking to explain as to why action may not be taken against them for sitting on files and this delay. According to the Right to Service Act, there is a fixed time within which you have to give that document or service and that has been violated.”

He added, “The SDOs have also been asked to explain why the inordinate delay in dealing with these files.”

An HCS officer has been specifically deployed as the assistant estate officer to monitor the working in the building branch or estate branch on daily basis. It is the AEO’s job to check and supervise if any delay was being caused in cases and why.

To meet the AEO now, an online appointment is required, which people say takes about 10-12 days, thereby making it difficult every time one has to approach the officer as files remain stuck at each level in SDO building branch or others.

“Why don’t they hold a public camp every week to weekly monitor status of files? A senior official be it the AEO only should hold a public camp and then officials sitting on files will automatically start working when they know their work will be reviewed weekly. Why can’t they work with an aim to facilitate people. The only thing one requires is a will,” an architect said.

The Indian Express in a series of reports had tracked paperwork stuck at the UT estate department. The common man applying for a basic document was tracked and it was observed how they were made to move in circles, not for days but even for years. In some cases, people had been frequenting for five years and for ten years too, just to take a completion certificate for their property.

The files were either dumped in the store room in the basement or were declared ‘not traceable’.