After complaints of civic staff’s ‘shortcuts’, PMC warns of strict action

The PMC has started sending two-member teams to undertake door-to-door surveys in the city's worst-hit areas.

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Medical team members during their door-to-door visit to screen people in wake of coronavirus pandemic, during the nationwide lockdown, at Ramganj Bazar in Jaipur. (PTI Photo/Representational)

Despite strict warnings about punitive action, including suspension, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has started receiving complaints about alleged negligence of duty by civic staff. Now, the civic body has appealed to local residents to alert the health department about such cases, so that action can be taken against them.

The PMC has started sending two-member teams to undertake door-to-door surveys in the city’s worst-hit areas. “There have been some inputs from three to four places that some PMC survey teams were not doing their work sincerely. This is a very serious issue and we will suspend them for negligence of duty,” said Assistant Municipal Commissioner Vaishali Jadhav.

Some complainants have alleged that the survey teams leave a bunch of forms with security personnel of housing societies, and ask them to distribute them among residents, with a message to fill the forms so that it can be collected the next day. In some places, the survey team has also been accused of not covering an entire building and skipping some flats.

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Jadhav urged local residents to contact the civic health department in the main building and inform them about such instances. “The staff on duty has been clearly warned. If they are not doing the survey properly, then they will be suspended,” she said.

“The main objective of the survey is to locate patients by visiting every house instead of waiting for the patients to report to hospital, ” added Jadhav.

The PMC teams, comprising 1,152 staff, have to cover a population of 45 lakh spread across 330 sq km.

It has also been observed that some infected patients were hiding their symptoms and reporting the infection only after the symptoms get severe, said civic officials.

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By April 10, the survey team had visited 36,558 houses and covered a 1,17,813 people. Forty suspected patients were referred for tests on the basis of their symptoms.

Ajay Jadhav

Ajay Jadhav is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Pune. He writes on Infrastructure, Politics, Civic issues, Sustainable Development and related stuff. He is a trekker and a sports enthusiast. Ajay has written research articles on the Conservancy staff that created a nationwide impact in framing policy to improve the condition of workers handling waste. Ajay has been consistently writing on politics and infrastructure. He brought to light the lack of basic infrastructure of school and hospital in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde even as two private helipads were developed by the leader who mostly commutes from Mumbai to Satara in helicopter. Ajay has been reporting on sustainable development initiatives that protects the environment while ensuring infrastructure development. ... Read More

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