Community halls ‘disappear’ from PMC official records

The civic officials found only partial records of community halls at PMC headquarters and ward offices. What was more unnerving is the fact that several of the community halls are even being used by organisations belonging to the corporators themselves. It was only in some specific locations that PMC was found to be governing community halls.

“The work of gathering information on property owned by the civic body is over and the data is being stored in a specially designed software. A total of 10,536 land properties have been identified and 2,081 buildings owned by the civic body are being listed in the software,” said PMC Land Estate Officer R T Shinde.

He said the list includes all gardens,hospitals,schools,cultural halls,sports complex,offices,roads,sewage treatment plants and other facilities. “However,the department has been unable to get the entire information on community halls constructed across the city. There is no complete record in the civic headquarters as they were constructed under the jurisdiction of ward offices in their respective areas,” Shinde said.

The Land Estate Department had asked all ward officers to submit a list of community halls,along with other details of their usage,to the civic body headquarters,he said,adding,“The ward offices have expressed inability to provide information on community halls,” said Shinde.

PMC Urban Community Department in-charge Hanumant Nazirkar said the department has as many 125 community halls under its jurisdiction,all of which have either been allotted to social organisations or are being used by the department for various social purposes.

However,the department does not have all these community halls in its custody,he said. “The PMC building construction department takes our opinion before constructing any community hall so that it can be used for social purposes. We give approval only if the department plans to use it on its own or through some social organisations. But they can be constructed without the department’s actual nod under different rules existent within the system.” It is the ward offices who normally construct these halls and plan their usage,he added.

According to a senior official,community halls are constructed by ward offices on demand by the local corporators,even if the urban community department conveys that it will not be used by it. “These are basically on demand by the corporators,to be used by their organisations involved in social work. Therefore,there is no data kept with the ward offices about their status,” he said.

Following this trend,corporator Pandurang Kamble and Yogesh Mulick have sought approval for allotting the community hall at Swami Vivekanandnagar in Ghorpadi Peth to Yuvakkranti Pratishthan on a 99 years’ lease to enable social work. “The community hall is not in use. A lot of illegal activities are taking place in it,with no public purpose. Therefore,it should be allotted to a social organisation of their choice,” the corporators had said.