Excessive work pressure and long working hours leading to health issues is endemic across our work culture.
The pinch is equally felt by the staffers of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, who are grappling with these challenges, leading to disruption in development and upkeep of the city.
Over the past year, more than 50 municipal officials from various departments have tendered their resignations due to extended working hours, excessive workloads, the hassles of attending multiple meetings, elevated stress levels, and health concerns. A few even attributed their departures to burnout.
“In Monday’s staff selection committee meeting, resignations of two officials were accepted,” revealed a senior official from the AMC.
The committee examined the resignations of additional engineers, Falgun Mistry and Ratanji D Karen. Deputy TDO Mukesh Patel from the North West Zone and Chandansingh Bilwal from the South West Zone stepped down in April this year. Estate officer Manish Master resigned last September, while ward inspector Paresh Patel from Naroda ward and inspector Neeraj Jha of Sardarnagar ward, both areas under North Zone, chose to leave.
“In the past year, around 50 officials have tendered their resignations. Most of them held positions such as assistant engineers, additional engineers, assistant TDOs, deputy TDOs, ward inspectors, and junior and senior clerks,” another AMC official said.
To tackle this issue, the AMC commissioner issued a circular in May 2023, cautioning that officials who resign from AMC without approval would face disciplinary action. However, this directive has not significantly curbed the number of resignations.
“Many resignation letters mention work pressure and stress among Class 1 and Class 2 officers in the engineering and estate departments. Stress levels are particularly high in zonal AMC offices. Some officials have mentioned attending several meetings, sometimes up to three a day, in addition to fieldwork as key reasons for leaving their positions,” added the civic official.
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