The Indian Express            03.08.2013

PMC to reward top three self help groups for performance

As per the proposal, which was tabled in the women and child welfare committee, the civic body would reward the top three self help groups every year with a cash prize of Rs 1.5 lakh, Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 respectively.

"The self help groups with extraordinary performance will be rewarded. This will motivate them to work hard," said Hanumant Nazirkar, incharge, Urban Community Development (UCD), PMC.

He said the idea was conceived by the elected representatives. "The self help groups will be selected by committee headed by Mayor, the usual practice for any other selection committee set up to issue rewards," said Nazirkar.

Meanwhile, the civic administration has taken up a drive to verify self help groups registered with the civic body. As per the records, there are as many as 12,000 self help groups in the city but doubts prevail over how many of them are functional.

"The PMC has no computer records of the self help groups. Thus, a drive is being undertaken to register them. It will help in the implementation of various schemes launched for urban poor and also give an idea on the actual number of self help groups," he said.

Activist Vivek Velankar said the rewards will meet the same fate as the others conferred by the civic body. "The elected representatives push for organisation and individuals of their choice for rewards. Most of the self help groups are run by the elected representatives and the reward are usually given to please party activists running these groups," he added.

Velankar said the civic body is unable to provide basic facilities to citizens and the money is unnecessarily being spent on issues which are not important "The elected representatives have been claiming credit for giving scholarships to meritorious Class X and Class XII students by distributing scholarship forms in their offices. This initiative too will give them another opportunity to claim credit," he added.

The Times of India              03.08.2013

Civic body spends Rs 10 lakh per month on police services

AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is spending more than Rs 10 lakh every month on a team of 28 policemen it has deployed for assisting the civic body during anti-encroachment drives. However, highly placed sources in the AMC said the policemen had no work when no such drives were held.

A senior civic body official said that the police force was needed only for 10-12 days in a month. "Since the last one year, we required policemen only during demolishing illegal structures and pulling down buildings as part of the road widening drive. Besides, the police also assisted the civic officials during sealing of commercial properties," he said.

Justifying the requirement of police on a regular basis, Shivaji Zanzan, chief fire officer and tax collection in charge in AMC, said on Friday that the police had been playing a vital role in the drives. "They also help us during tax collection drives. We need them badly during the last quarter of the financial year when the civic body aggressively plans tax collection," he said.

Zanzan said that six policemen were recently assigned to six municipal wards in the city to assist the officials during anti-encroachment drives. "We are now planning to collect property tax and to make it a big success, we need the police," he said.

He said hiring policemen on specific days was a time killing activity as it involved heavy expenditure. "We used to do it for years, but later the state government allowed us to deploy them on a regular basis," he said.

Earlier, the civic body used to deploy police constables in the nuisance detection squads of the AMC established to penalise those who throw garbage on city roads. However, non-payment of rent of the vehicles used by the squads has forced the authorities to keep the project on hold for the past few months.

The civic body is already struggling on the financial front. It is not only delaying payments of several private contractors but also postponing the salaries of its employees. Besides, the civic body had witnessed a fiscal deficit of Rs 250 crore in the last financial budget.