Costly car seva comes to a grinding halt in PCMC

[sidmis]

Costly car seva comes to a grinding halt in PCMC
As Reported by MANOJ MORE in Express India, August 13, 2008

Pune, August 12 RTI QUERY: 63 cars for officers and office-bearers, annual fuel expenses Rs 74 lakh, repairs Rs 26 lakh

The Deputy Mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad will soon move around the town in a brand new ambassador car. He won’t get the Maruti Esteem which his predecessors flaunted. That’s because the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has now put in place new vehicle-norms for all civic officers and office-bearers. As per the new bar, the PCMC will now purchase vehicles only worth only Rs four lakh and not beyond that. The information came to light following an RTI application moved by The Indian Express last month.

The PCMC has neither had a brainwave nor it is voluntarily deciding to implement the norms. The civic body has actually been pegged on the backfoot after last year’s Bombay high court ruling which ridiculed the propensity among civic officers and office-bearers to buy costly cars at the expense of public money. After the court’s scathing observation, the state government had issued guidelines to all civic bodies vis-a-vis purchase of vehicles. “As per the fresh guidelines issued by the state government, we will buy vehicles worth Rs four lakh for officers and office-bearers. Only the municipal commissioner and the mayor will get vehicles worth up to Rs six lakh,” said PCMC assistant municipal commissioner Sudhakar Deshmukh. However, joint city engineer Praveen Tupe said as per their information, all civic officers and office-bearers will get cars costing only upto Rs four lakh.

This means, the current holders of fancy cars will get to enjoy their prized possession till they go out of business. For years, successive Pimpri-Chinchwad mayors and municipal commissioners have been zipping across the town in costly cars. For instance, the current Mayor Aparna Doke zooms around the town in a Corolla and Lancer. Municipal Commissioner Asheesh Sharma and standing committee chairperson Usha Waghere have a Corolla each at their disposal. Women and child welfare chairperson Shobha Adiyal enjoys her journeys by a City Honda. “All these cars were worth Rs 8 to 10 lakh when purchased,” officials said.

Tupe said as head of the civic vehicle workshop he had from time to time brought to the notice of the then municipal commisisoners and mayors the rules regarding purchase of vehicles. “The civic norms do not favour purchase of costly cars, but nobody bothered...” he said. “From now on, no more costly cars,” added Deshmukh.

Yet another information that emerged through the RTI application throws light on the fuel and repair expenses of the 63 cars currently at the disposal of civic officers and office-bearers. The collective amount on fuel and repairs to these cars annually stands at around Rs one crore -- fuel Rs 74 lakh and repairs Rs 26 lakh. Add to this the services of 63 drivers who are provided by the civic body. The average monthly salary of these drivers is around Rs 10,000. “Apart from the repairs, there are also other expenses like registration and RTO passing. On the average, we spend about Rs 5000 for repairs to each car,” said Tupe. In short, the civic administration says it spend Rs two crore annually on these official cars.

The RTI reply said each officer can use up to Rs 150 litre fuel every month. The office-bearers have different norms for fuel expenses. The mayor is allowed fuel worth Rs 3.50 lakh every year, the deputy mayor Rs 2.50 lakh, standing committee chairman Rs 3 lakh, ruling party leader Rs 2.50 lakh and opposition leader Rs 2.50 lakh. “Not a single paisa is given beyond this amount,” said municipal secretary Sharad Kale.

Costly car seva comes to a grinding halt in PCMC - Express India