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Journalism of Courage
With the second incident of a civic officer being wrongly treated by politicians in the past few months, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Engineers Association on Monday urged the municipal commissioner to set up a dedicated cell of civic legal department to register offences against those responsible for misbehaving with the civic staff on duty as they protested against Congress legislator Ravindra Dhangekar for abusing incharge of civic water supply department Nandkishore Jagtap.
Dhangekar allegedly abused Jagtap on Friday over allowing BJP to inaugurate the water tank in Ashanagar in Janwadi-Gokhalenagar which was constructed on the initiative of former Congress corporator Datta Bahirat. The controversy led to Congress holding inauguration hours before the official inauguration by BJP through PMC. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was to inaugurate the water tank but stayed away from the function due to the controversy.
“There are frequent incidents of politicians misbehaving with the civic staff on duty. It is not enough to merely condemn such incidents,” said civic officers led by City Engineer Prashant Waghmare during the agitation at the lawn of civic main building.
The civic staff is abused, manhandled or threatened by the political workers, they said adding that there should be strong steps to stop such incidents. “If the affected civic staff registers a police complaint, then he further faces problem. If these incidents have to stop, then the PMC should have a legal cell to register complaint against the person misbehaving with civic staff on duty,” they demanded in a memorandum submitted to municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar.
In September last year, BJP legislator Nitesh Rane used foul language against the civic officers and administration while participating in the agitation of Punyeshwar Punarnirman Samiti, a representatives of various Hindu organisations including BJP seeking action on alleged encroachment alongside Punyeshwar temple in Kasba Peth. The PMC employees union had protested against it and had said it would not tolerate the insult of civic officers made by anyone for their personal gains and warned of giving befitting reply if the same is repeated.
