Mayor asks PMC administration not to allow staff to join PMRDA

A state government officer on deputation came and left within seven months to join some other organisation, Bagul said, adding, “This was not in the interest of the civic body because if something had gone wrong during his short tenure, the one newly appointed would have to suffer. There is no control of the municipal commissioner on its civic staff. It has been understood that seven senior civic engineers have appeared for an interview at PMRDA.”

On the other hand, state government officials on deputation to PMC are not leaving despite being transferred to postings outside the city, said Prithviraj Sutar of the Shiv Sena. Congress leader Arvind Shinde said that there is already a staff shortage in PMC and allowing senior staff to go on deputation would hamper the civic body’s functioning.

Municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar said that it is mandatory for civic staff to take permission from PMC before appearing for interviews in some other organisation. “We would inquire if anyone has appeared for interviews at PMRDA without permission and take appropriate action against them,” he said.

On state government officials coming on deputation to PMC, Kumar said that it is mandatory for the civic body to follow the directions of thes state government and if they are held responsible for any wrongdoing during their tenure, then they are elligible to face action irrespective of their posting in any other organisation.

Additional city engineer Vivek Kharwadkar recently joined PMRDA on deputation as the newly constituted
authority is filling up posts approved by the state government. On another issue pertaining to the civic administration violating rules to recover dues from defaulters, Kumar said that he would seek details of each cases wherein dues were reduced.

The elected representatives had pointed out that the PMC’s audit department had found irregularities in a few proposals regarding building permissions as the neccessary fee was not charged as per rules.

“It was found that Rs 53 crore worth additional fees should have been charged from the applicants seeking construction of buildings. However, the recovery was of Rs 48 crore as the remaining was cancelled by the respective departments after verifying the documents of each cases,” the corporators complained, adding that the civic administration does not have powers to cancel the dues directly.