Staff Reporter :
In a damning report, NMC’s House Committee has recommended stopping one annual increment and deducting one day’s pay from salary of clerks and officers whose lapses led to stationery scam. Accepting the probe report that was tabled in last general body meeting of current House on Wednesday, the committee headed by Ruling Party Leader Avinash Thakre also indicted Additional Commissioner Ram Joshi for overlooking the irregularities in Health Department. Other major recommendation of the committee is to continue the probe under chairmanship of retired Judge so that misconduct in other departments of civic body too can be found out and necessary action thereafter can be taken. The committee submitted its 18-point recommendation that was adopted with voice vote by the House. The other members of the committee included Leader of Opposition Tanaji Wanve, Adv Sanjay Balpande, Vaishali Narnaware, Group Leader, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Sandip Jadhav and from administrative side Deputy Commissioner Nirbhay Jain.
The committee had co-opted retd Judge Shekhar Muley to assist in the inquiry. While one increment stoppage is recommended for those who had direct role in perpetuation of the scam, one day’s salary deduction is for indirect connection. In the report, the committee listed names of Rajesh Meshram, Audit Officer; Mohd Ashfaq Khan, Upper Division Clerk (UDC); Mrs Karade, UDC; S Y Nagdive, UDC; Shobha Gadre, then UDC; Vijay Kolhe, retd CAFO; Hemant Thakre, ex-CAFO; Dr Sanjay Chilkar, ex-Medical Health Officer; Prashant Bhatulkar, Allopathic Compounder; Mohan Padwanshi, UDC; Sanis Gokhe, UDC; Sanjay Ingle, Junior Engineer; Suresh Shivankar, UDC; Sunita Shau, Lower Division Clerk (LDC); Sunita Patil, Food Inspector; Mahesh Dhamecha, Assistant Commissioner (GAD); Naresh Borkar, Executive Engineer; Dr Narendra Bahirwar, Dr Pradeep Dasarwar, retd Medical Officer, who they said had a role to play in the scam, directly or indirectly.
The fact is also observed in the report of Administrative Committee headed by Additional Municipal Commissioner that was constituted by Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B. Each of the supervisory officers, Heads of Department shared their login and password of E-Gov in that was allegedly misused by lower rung employees to prepare bogus order, prepare bills and same was then cleared without verification by Finance Department. One major aspect that House committee asked is to make monthly provision of each department and same should be tallied with payments so as to prevent any scope for misuse. Similarly weekly report of expenditure of civic body as envisaged in Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act should be implemented. Slum Notification Scrapped: Echoing sentiments of House, Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari directed scrapping of NMC’s notification which made it mandatory for slum dwellers to seek approval for development plan before undertaking construction. Interestingly the decision of NMC’s House came on eve of civic elections.
Mayor directed administration to reframe the policy taking into account all aspects. The issue was brought to House through adjournment motion by Sanjay Balpande who said the notification is per se illegal and pointed out several legal angles to buttress his point. His view was supported by all party corporators who felt that poor people residing in slums would be worst affected. Earlier, Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B clarified that on one point it was pointed out that there are some parts of area that are well developed but still categorised as slums so the said notification would have ensured unified building laws throughout the city. Dirty Administrative Building: Narendra Borkar raised the issue of lack of proper maintenance of NMC’s Administrative Building and asked administration to entrust same to house keeping agency. Citing NIT’s building which is neat and clean, the NMC’s building by comparison is quite poor in maintenance and as to cleanliness the less said the better. He said while crores of funds are spent on upkeep of Suresh Bhat auditorium from where earnings are quite less, why is that NMC is ignoring its own backyard and excluding it from cleanliness. Former Mayor Sandip Joshi highlighted a case of blatant illegality on part of officials of Town Planning Department of NMC. Referring to a demolition of a building of a plot that was legally divided, he opened can of worms leading to direction from Mayor to scrapping development plan granted to a developer. Joshi said to favour a particular developer Town Planning’s Laxmi Nagar Zone officials demolished a house after a police complaint against their illegal action was lodged. Mayor also directed administration to probe role of Junior Engineers and if found guilty strictest action should be taken against him.
Mayor orders immediate suspension of Dr Gantawar
Staff Reporter :
Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari rebuked the civic administration for going slow on disciplinary action against erring official and directed immediate suspension of Dr Pravin Gantawar who is on unauthorised leave since last one year. The discussion on absence of full time Doctors at Indira Gandhi Rugnalay, Gandhi Nagar, was brought up by Parineeta Fuke and veered to Dr Gantawar. At one point of time, Ruling Party Leader Avinash Thakre asked why administration is keen on shielding Dr Gantawar.
