The Indian Express 07.05.2013
Community halls ‘disappear’ from PMC official records
Halls being used by organisations belonging to corporators, no proper records at PMC or ward offices.
In spite of taking five years to compile its list of properties, the maximum being for community halls, most such halls are still unaccounted for. At least they do not find place in the official records though they do exist.
The civic officials found only partial records of community halls at PMC headquarters and ward offices. What was more unnerving is the fact that several of the community halls are even being used by organisations belonging to the corporators themselves. It was only in some specific locations that PMC was found to be governing community halls.
"The work of gathering information on property owned by the civic body is over and the data is being stored in a specially designed software. A total of 10,536 land properties have been identified and 2,081 buildings owned by the civic body are being listed in the software," said PMC Land Estate Officer R T Shinde.
He said the list includes all gardens, hospitals, schools, cultural halls, sports complex, offices, roads, sewage treatment plants and other facilities. "However, the department has been unable to get the entire information on community halls constructed across the city. There is no complete record in the civic headquarters as they were constructed under the jurisdiction of ward offices in their respective areas," Shinde said.
The Land Estate Department had asked all ward officers to submit a list of community halls, along with other details of their usage, to the civic body headquarters, he said, adding, "The ward offices have expressed inability to provide information on community halls," said Shinde.
PMC Urban Community Department in-charge Hanumant Nazirkar said the department has as many 125 community halls under its jurisdiction, all of which have either been allotted to social organisations or are being used by the department for various social purposes.
