The Times of India              09.11.2010

PCMC restricts access to networking sites in its offices

PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has banned use of social networking sites in municipal offices. The decision has been taken after it was found that the employees spent considerable time using such sites. Neelkanth Poman, computer officer, PCMC, said, "The computer department has installed a firewall to restrict the access to Facebook and Youtube."

The restriction is applicable to around 800 computers in the main office building, four zonal offices, civic hospitals and other municipal buildings. Poman said, "Civic employees spend considerable time on these sites leading to wastage of manhours. It affects the speed of the computers. There is also a virus risk." The PCMC has started computerisation of its departments. It is also encouraging the employees to be computer savvy by providing loans to the employees to purchase laptops.