PCMC8217;s bid to cycle green message punctured!

Towards this end, they veered away from the most accepted versions of reaching out to the people. To draw attention of the masses, they used the humble man8217;s vehicle, the bicycle. Braving the rains, Municipal Commissioner B I Nagrale and a few of his colleagues actually breezed in at the PCMC headquarters on bicycles.

But some had other ideas. Rains drowned Mayor Madhukar Pawle8217;s intentions of riding the bicycle all the way from Nigdi to the PCMC headquarters. And so made it by a PCMT bus. Additional Municipal Commissioner R B Konde, city engineer S D Garade and a few other officials too followed suit. But it was corporator Zamabai Barne who became the cynosure of all eyes. She arrived all the way from Thergaon in a hugely decorated bullock-cart.

Standing committee chairperson Shamim Pathan, senior health officer K Nagkumar and some of the elected office-bearers pedalled their way to the corporation. Routine events such as mock general body meeting and other such programmes, took a back seat this year.

But all it took was a five-hour marathon dharna by the civic employees outside the PCMC administrative building to mar the entire foundation day celebrations. The employees boycotted the programmes and strongly voiced their various demands. That included removal of discrepancies in the fixation of pay-scales of the senior and the junior employees as per the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission. They warned that they would go on an indefinite strike from November 14 if their demands were not met.

Following the dharna, the routine civic work at the corporation came to a standstill. The employees later resolved to hold dharnas everyday till October 19 and hold a chain fast till October 27. A one-day token strike will be organised on October 28.

The joint action committee of various employees unions comprising the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, Mahapalika Karmachari Sangh, Nurses8217; Association, and the Sarva Mazdoor Sangh had submitted a memorandum of demands last week to Konde. Today, they demanded that the administration should reach an agreement with the leaders of various unions. The dharna began at 10.30 am and ended at 3 pm as neither the commissioner nor the mayor held talks with the union leaders. All they needed was some kind of assurance, was the general feeling among the employees.

The elected office-bearers including Pawle were of the opinion that the employees8217; demands were appropriate, but the timing of their agitation was certainly uncalled for. Pawle expressed his displeasure over the employees agitation. Newly elected Shiv Sena MLA Gajanan Babar during the course of the dharna supported the demands of the employees and said that it was really unfortunate that they had to agitate in this manner on the occasion of the foundation day. He said that if some assurance was given by the commissioner or the mayor, the employees would not have prolonged the agitation.

Meanwhile, at a programme held in the evening to mark the foundation day, Pawle felicitated prominent leaders of the warkari sect, Kisanmaharaj Sakhare and Narayan Maharaj.