4 estate office staffers took VRS in 6 months

CHANDIGARH: Under the lens over extra pressure following the suicide of an employee recently, the UT estate office is probably not providing the ideal working environment — a charge gaining ground with three of its employees taking premature retirement under the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) in just three months and another around six months back. That’s not all. Five others have applied under the VRS too.

Only a few of them have citied health issues, others have given “family circumstances” as the reason.

However, multiple sources in the estate office have told TOI that extra workload is forcing employees to opt for the VRS.

“Mentioning family circumstances is a mere formality. The real reason is the kind of workload and pressure in the office. There is acute staff crunch of permanent employees. Most employees are working on outsourced or contractual basis. They don’t have any major responsibilities,” both current and former employees told TOI.

“Litigation cases are rising. Employees not only have to visit the Punjab and Haryana high court and district courts complex, they have to face tribunals, commissioner and the Right to Service Commission on a regular basis,” they added.

Record shows that those who have taken VRS and also those who have applied for it have held significant posts in the estate office.

Some of the employees, whose parent cadre is estate office, but currently working with some other department of the UT have also applied udner the voluntary retirement scheme.