Municipal Commissioner asks for probe into anomolies

He said that in some cases he had taken action against the erring officials and contractors. In cases involving the violation of development control (DC) rules, he had asked the Assistant Director of Town Planning to investigate. One such complaint pertained to a building "Suyojit Sankul", constructed right opposite the NMC headquarters.

Bhoge, who took over the reins of the civic administration on May 1, 2000, has been scrutinising civic work in progress and even those which are already complete.

Incidentally, Bhoge’s predecessors were Sujata Saunik (October 13, 1998 to March 31, 2000), K P Bakshi (December 12, 1997 to September 6, 1998) and Baldev Chand (June 2, 1995 to December 12, 1997). Over the past four months, Bhoge has freezed the annual increments of 16 civic officials for five years and recovered the defrauded amount of Rs 26 lakh from officials and contractors in connection with purchase of lamp poles. The executive engineer of the NMC R K Pawar has been slapped with a recovery of Rs 64 lakh in connection with financial irregularities while buying RCC pipes for water schemes.

Bhoge admitted that his predecessors had failed to administer the civic body properly and prevent large scale irregularities. He further said that resolutions moved by corporators and passed by the NMC were implemented without taking into consideration their legalities. In the past, the NMC has recruited employees recommended by corporators without following proper procedures and not taking merit into consideration.

During the plague scare in 1994-95, the NMC recruited 170 employees in the health department. All these candidates were recommended by corporators (each of the 85 corporators recommending two each). This precedent has continued over the years, with the civic body recruiting 823 employees last year.