District admn kept some promises,broke some

The district administration strived to achieve several targets,but fell short of many.

The beginning of the year saw the administration take charge of doling out the Rs 1.07-crore rehabilitation package for the German Bakery blast victims. Under the collector’s initiative,the proposal to give compensation to the bakery owner too was cleared by the state government,which gave the owners Kharoses Rs 14.23 lakh.

Under the zero pendency drive,the collectorate issued orders of disposing of 10,000 documents per month and having all applications and files received till September 30 being cleared.

The collectorate maintained that the drive would in turn benefit employees and help them get their pension benefits and dues at the time of retirement.

Another achievement was Pune district being selected by the Centre for an e-district project under which all services provided by it to the citizens would be made available online.

The district administration gave permission to start 527 citizen service centres (CSCs) where they would get various certificates such as income certificate,domicile certificate,nationality certificate and senior citizen certificate. At present,Pune has 55 CSCs.

The year also saw the collectorate report on the Lavasa hill station being submitted it to the revenue department in the mantralaya.

Following the Pune floods,a committee was set up to prepare a detailed report on encroachments on nullahs and natural streams in the city with the help of the irrigation department as it prevented the natural flow of water.

The district collector also took charge to find sites to address the city’s garbage woes,thinking 10 years ahead. The proposal of sites,Vadhy Budruk on Nagar Road and Tulapur on Alandi Road,has been submitted to the state government by the collector as was promised to the villagers of Urali Devachi.

At least five revenue staffers including two talathis and a resident naib tehsildar attached to the Pune district collectorate were suspended for alleged irregularities in transferring ownership of 42.53 hectares of prime defence and state government land to private parties without prior consent from the revenue higher-ups.

And that wasn’t…

NO UIDs: The proposed Unique Identity Number project did not begin nor could the collectorate complete the photo identity drive by the end of the year.

TOILET BLOCK: The administration was striving to achieve the open defecation free status under the Nirmal Gram scheme with 100 per cent toilet blocks. However,even till the end of the year,the claim was just about 80 per cent.

LAND ACQUISITIONS: Pendancy in land acquisitions for various projects slowed down the upcoming SEZs in the district.

THREAT FROM SAND MAFIA: Even as the sand auction permission was given only at the end of the year,the staffers of the Pune division continued getting threats from sand mafia,leading to protests.