LUCKNOW, Sept. 12 -- Mayor Sushma Kharkwal paid a surprise visit to the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) headquarters on Thursday morning and found widespread absenteeism of officials, with citizens waiting outside locked offices and their grievances unheard. She asked the absentees to provide proof of their whereabouts within two days. "If they fail to provide a satisfactory reply, I will recommend strict action to the state government and even submit a report to chief minister Yogi Adityanath," she warned.The mayor arrived at the Lalbagh-based HQ around 10:45am, just 45 minutes after senior officials were supposed to be on their seats. Before starting her inspection, the mayor asked staff to keep both the main gates of the building locked so as to prevent latecomers from slipping in unnoticed.On the ground floor, Kharkwal entered each section one by one. From the clerks' tables to the section heads' cabins, she found most of the officials missing from their workplace. She picked up the attendance registers from every department and carried them along as she moved to the first floor.Her next stop were the offices of additional municipal commissioners Lalit Kumar, Namrata Singh and Arun Kumar Gupta. Each time she opened a door, she found an empty chair. She then walked into chief engineer (civil) Mahesh Verma's office and animal husbandry officer Abhinav Verma's cabin, only to find them vacant. By the end of her inspection, the mayor confirmed that except for municipal commissioner Gaurav Kumar, city health officer PK Srivastava and a few others, none of the senior officers were on their seats.Meanwhile, dozens of visitors who had arrived at the headquarters to lodge complaints were left outside unattended. "People come with genuine complaints, but no one is available to listen to them. This is negligence towards the public," Kharkwal said, calling the absence of officers during public meeting hours "unacceptable." To cross-check, the mayor opened the 311 app and found that several staff members had marked themselves present in the morning but had disappeared from their desks soon after. Terming this a "serious violation", she ordered retrieval of CCTV footage and kept the attendance registers in her custody.Kharkwal also raised an alarm over the misuse of municipal records, citing a case where a confidential city health department document had been leaked to outsiders. She described it as a "serious breach of trust" and reminded officials that their salaries come from taxpayers' money. On being contacted by HT, additional municipal commissioner Arun Kumar Gupta claimed he was at the university for some work and had informed the municipal commissioner. Animal welfare officer Abhinav Verma said he was late due to a visit to Kanha Upvan and a VIP movement.Additional municipal commissioner Namrata Singh and chief engineer Mahesh Verma remained unavailable for comment. Multiple calls to municipal commissioner Gaurav Kumar also went unanswered.Reiterating that this was not the first time negligence had surfaced despite repeated instructions, Kharkwal appealed to citizens to report absenteeism directly. "If you do not find an officer or employee at their desk by 10am, immediately complain on 6389200005 or tag us on social media," she urged....