As state government embarks on the Right to Service route, PCMC trots ahead with SARATHI

Chief Minister has awarded the PCMC for ‘speedy development through administrative work’.

Right to Service, Right to Service route, PCMC, SARATHI, Devendra Fadnavis, Fadnavis government, maharashta govt, pune news, city news, local news, pune newsline

PCMC commissioner Rajeev Jadhav and other officials receive the award from CM Devendra Fadnavis Monday.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s announcement that the state government will pass an ordinance for Right to Services will give Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) officials reasons to smile. PCMC has been implementing a complementary scheme, the SARATHI, which ensures citizens get services at a phone call or at the click of the mouse. SARATHI ensures compliance by the officials, to the demand for services, is reported. The CM’s announcement in Pune also comes a day after he awarded the PCMC for “speedy development through administrative work”.

SARATHI— a favourite project of former municipal commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi—gives direct access to civic services, eliminating the role of corporators. On an average, PCMC helplines used to get over 100 calls daily. Right to Service, on the other hand, entails giving people legal recourse to hold an officer accountable and ensure time-bound delivery of services though SARATHI is a system that though makes compliance by civic officials mandatory, does not include any punitive action.

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PCMC’s and Pardeshi’s efforts have borne fruit. For ensuring that citizens got timely services, the state government on Monday honoured PCMC with the top award in a competition organised by the government for “speedy development through administrative work”.

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At a function in Mumbai on Monday, Chief Minister Fadnavis himself handed over the first prize that includes a cash component of Rs 10 lakh to PCMC officials. Pardeshi could not be present at the function. State Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya had a word of praise for Pardeshi. Kshatriya said SARATHI initiatives launched by Pardeshi during his tenure as PCMC commissioner had helped PCMC provide civic services to citizens at a phone call. “Pardeshi has also implemented SARATHI in the IGR department which he headed until recently,” said Kshatriya.

PCMC senior officer Neelkanth Poman said SARATHI is complementary to Right to Services “While Right to Services makes it legally binding on officials to provide services, SARATHI lays stress on compliance by officials of the request for civic services. SARATHI makes it mandatory for officials to ensure compliance, but unlike Right to Services there is no provision of any punishment,” he said.

During Pardeshi’s tenure, SARATHI helpline used to receive 100-150 calls while there were 360 hits on an average daily on PCMC website. Citizens, however, grumble that SARATHI is not as effective as it was during Pardeshi’s tenure. “I recently put in my request for getting tap water. PCMC officials refused. But the message received on my complaint to SARATHI said by grievance has been attended to,” said Vidya Shivran.

Civic officials, however, said SARATHI is catering to citizens’ complaint like in the past. “If SARATHI complaints are not attended to, citizens can directly take their grievance to the commissioner,” said civic officials.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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