No computers for PCMC land dept

Pune, DEC 5: This may be an age of computers where their need is now widespread in just about each government office or department, but th...

Pune, DEC 5: This may be an age of computers where their need is now widespread in just about each government office or department, but the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation PCMC does not seem to believe it, as it has denied the requirement of two computers for the all important land acquisition department.

The irony is that the PCMC spends up to Rs ten crore for land acquisitions every year but does not seem to have the inclination to spend a few lakh rupees for computerisation of this department.

The land acquisition department works under the directives of the district collectorate and two officers of the rank of deputy collector have been appointed here. The department exclusively handles all cases relating to land acquisition for the PCMC.

This department had made a demand of just a single computer for its office last month. The PCMC town planning department made a recommendation that two computers be provided to this department. The demand, however, has been turned down by the PCMC.

Significantly the State Government has issued directives to the municipal corporations to provide all the necessary requirements of this department. The PCMC has so far provided a jeep and a telephone connection.

Civic sources said that there are nearly one hundred proposals of land acquisition which are to be cleared by the land acquisition department. The delay in the process of land acquisitions means heavy losses for the PCMC as the municipal corporation has to pay the accumulated interest on the principal amount to be paid as land price. Computers would help in not only in better maintenance of the land records but easy disposal of all the land acquisition cases, the sources felt.

PCMC8217;s work of computerisation of its own departments has so far been very slow. The octroi department has been computerised but some sections in it have been faced with the problem of clearing the Y2K bug. The tax collection department has been making a demand for providing computers but little progress has been made so far. A project prepared by the Mahindra British Telecom MBT for the PCMC in which a software for collection of property taxes has been developed is just not being used because the PCMC has been stuck in clearing few technicalities since April this year.