PMC

Pune Municipal Corporation

community

Vishrambaug Wada

tender

A building has gone missing from Kasba Peth and a few furious residents have approached(PMC) with the complaint, demanding the officials to locate it. The construction in question is ahall (samaj mandir) that was built in early 2019 within the jurisdiction ofward office near Kagadipura. Before they raised the grievance, the activists had tried searching for the building on the basis of descriptions mentioned in the (cleared) bills and. They did not achieve success.The attempt to get details under Right to Information (RTI) Act proved futile. Now, the activists have challenged the PMC officials, who are tasked with searching the structure and also acting against the people responsible for the scam.The Vishrambaug Wada ward office in November 2018 had floated a tender to construct a community hall for the residents of Kagadipura and the vicinity in tandem with PMC’s norm — to build a community centre for every 5,000 people. Funds worth Rs 20 lakh were sanctioned from the ward office and the work was supposed to be completed by April 2019. The bills were passed by engineers engaged in the task.However, when residents tried to locate the community hall for perusal, they could find it. They searched all the lands owned by civic body, only to discover that no such construction was held in the mentioned period. Alarmed over the possibility of a scam, the citizens approached authorities with their query. They were plied with many excuses later.Subhash Jadhav, a local who has raised the complaint, said, “The first grievance was made in April 2019, when we had simply asked the officials to show us the hall. They started avoiding us. We had noticed that work of a platform with walls had taken place at the same time. But the authorities denied that it was the community hall.”When the suspicion broadened, residents demanded for the file on entire work, which the officials denied and instead kept dilly-dallying and rescheduling meetings. Moreover, the community hall in question could not have been sanctioned as there was no permission from the social development and the estate and management departments of PMC. “A community hall was already built five years ago. But, we wanted to see this one which PMC claims to have constructed,” Jadhav said.This week, the residents received a reply under RTI after a year-long follow-up. Sattar Shaikh, who is also a part of the group that has lodged complaints, said that the RTI intimation does not mention the whereabouts of the community hall, but instead sheds light on how the money is being used for the welfare of the locals. “This clearly indicates a scam and so, we decided to followup on the issue. Now we want the officers involved in floating the tender and passing the bills to show the structure,” he said.Ramganesh Badhe, an engineer attached with the ward office, said that money was not spent on the community hall, but creating recreational spaces. “We will get more details and inform you about this,” said Badhe.The complaint was received by Ashish Mahadalkar, assistant municipal commissioner of Kasba-Vishrambaug Wada ward office. He has promised to start an inquiry over why the hall was not constructed. “The guilty will be punished if we find any irregularities,” said Mahadalkar.