Pune Municipal Corporation to spend over Rs 1 crore on mobile app services to boost mental well-being of civic staff

Pune civic health officials said they have tabled the proposal to purchase app services as per the instructions of higher authorities.

Nearly all smartphones sold in Britain run either Apple's iOS or Google's Android operating systems. (Representational Image: Pexel)

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) recently announced it will purchase mobile application services to reduce stress and anxiety among its workforce.

Rajendra Bhosale, Municipal Commissioner, Pune, said, “Pune is growing at a faster pace and the civic body must provide basic civic amenities to the ever-increasing population. Thus, civic staff are having to work hard to meet the citizens’ demands and endure a lot of physical and mental stress in the process.”

Bhosale added that he realised while interacting with the civic staff that they were under a high level of stress.

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“To ensure the sound mental health of the civic staff and boost their morale, we have decided to avail the services of a mobile application. The civic body will be purchasing… licences for the use of the mobile application at a total cost of Rs 1.27 crore,” the Pune municipal commissioner said, adding that they would use Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds to make the purchase.

Civic health officials said they have tabled the proposal as per the instructions of higher authorities. “We don’t have any data on mental health issues of civic employees,’ a civic health department official said.

According to another civic official, the proposal was allegedly pushed by a senior minister of the state government.

Ajay Jadhav

Ajay Jadhav is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Pune. He writes on Infrastructure, Politics, Civic issues, Sustainable Development and related stuff. He is a trekker and a sports enthusiast. Ajay has written research articles on the Conservancy staff that created a nationwide impact in framing policy to improve the condition of workers handling waste. Ajay has been consistently writing on politics and infrastructure. He brought to light the lack of basic infrastructure of school and hospital in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde even as two private helipads were developed by the leader who mostly commutes from Mumbai to Satara in helicopter. Ajay has been reporting on sustainable development initiatives that protects the environment while ensuring infrastructure development. ... Read More

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