Journalism of Courage
USING THE official government machinery system for their personal work, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) secretary office is fast becoming a private courier service for the corporators who routinely throng the civic headquarters office with requests to distribute invitation cards for wedding of their wards or for other family-events.
The civic municipal secretary is responsible for holding the meetings of general body and various committees as per the provisions of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations (BPMC) Act. The various functions of civic bodies are organised by the municipal secretary department.
The PMC municipal secretary office has to communicate with the corporators on a regular basis regarding meetings and civic functions for which it has a dedicated staff that hand delivers official communications to corporators at their respective offices spread across the city.
“The door-step delivery of official communication is being done for years as we want to avoid a situation wherein someone fails to get the official communication on time. However, it’s a fact that the municipal secretary office very often receives personal invitation cards from corporators for distribution,” said municipal secretary Sunil Parkhi. Civic staff, in-charge of delivering the official communication to corporators, said, “We are not officially asked to distribute the personal invitation cards by the sitting or former corporators. These requests are made verbally. We do it as a goodwill gesture, even though at times, the invitations are boxes and difficult to carry. Moreover, it has become a practice to use the civic communication delivery system for personal purpose by the corporators.” In fact, the civic administration has also started receiving directions for its telephone operators to make a call to each of the corporators as a reminder of their function.
“We are supposed to make only official calls. In the past, the demands of corporators have been on the rise to make invite calls for their personal or family-related events but we don’t do it,” said a telephone operator.
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