IN A startling revelation exposing severe administrative paralysis within the city’s civic body, an inquiry under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has disclosed that a staggering 71.26 per cent of regular sanctioned posts in the Nagpur M u n i c i p a l Corporation (NMC) are currently lying vacant. The acute human resource crunch has forced single officers to juggle portfolios across multiple critical departments, severely crippling daily civic governance, basic public amenities, and infrastructure delivery across Nagpur.

 

The official data, furnished by the Public Information Officer and officials of NMC’s General Administration Department to RTI activist Sanjay Thul, details the working and vacancy status across Class 1 to Class 4cadres as of September 1, 2026, benchmarked against the statutory staffing pattern(Akrutibandh) approved on May 10, 2023. Out of 9,321 sanctioned regular posts across Class 1 to Class 4, barely 2,678 personnel are currently on active payroll, leaving 6,643 posts vacant. The vacancy profile paints an alarming picture across all administrative tiers: Class 1 (Senior Officers): Out of 309 sanctioned posts, 194 positions (62.78 per cent) remain unoccupied, leaving just 115 officers to steer policymaking and supervisory roles.

 

Class 2 (Mid-Level Officers): Out of 229 sanctioned posts, 177 positions (77.29 per cent) lie vacant. Only 52 personnel are working, of whom 10 are school teachers deputed to these posts. Class 3 (Clerical, Field and Technical Staff): Considered the administrative backbone directly interfacing with the public, this cadre has 4,560 vacant posts (69.78 per cent) out of 6,534 sanctioned positions. Only 1,974 employees are active, including 310 teachers. Class 4 (General Support Staff): Out of 2,249 posts, a massive 1,712 (76.12 per cent) are vacant, with only 537 personnel working. Because nearly four out of every five Class 1 and Class 2 supervisory positions are vacant, executive engineers and assistant commissioners are routinely burdened with additional charges spanning three to four disparate civic departments. This has led to compromised oversight, extensive delays in issuing town planning permissions and property tax corrections, and mounting pendency of development files. Ordinary citizens visiting the civic headquarters and zonal offices are regularly turned away due to the physical absence of officers attending field meetings or handling overlapping portfolios. 

 

 

Beyond the regular administrative ranks, the field sanitation workforce is also grappling with acute deficits. Out of 8,660 sanctioned posts for sweepers and sanitation workers, 2,162 positions (24.96 per cent) remain vacant, directly hitting solid waste collection, street sweeping, and desilting drives in expanding suburbs. When accounting for both administrative personnel and sanitation workers, the civic body is operating with an overall vacancy deficit of 49.02 per cent, with 8,805 out of 17,981 total posts vacant.