The Indian Express                        31.03.2013

PMC sports panel to fund summer sports camps in housing societies

To ensure that children in the city make most of the summer vacation, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) sports committee has decided to promote sports. For that, they have sought assistance from the co-operative housing societies to organise sports camps.

"There is a shortage of playgrounds in the city and many a time playgrounds are too far from residential societies. This prevents parents from sending their children to play. This situation will hinder the civic body from achieving its goal. So we want that co-operative housing societies should join us," said Avinash Bagwe, chairperson of sports committee.

He said the co-operative housing societies should provide their amenity space while the civic body would provide financial assistance.

PMC had recently framed its sports policy that encompasses promotion of 'sports culture'. The main focus is on encouraging youths to take up various kinds of sporting activities. It has also made provision for encouraging cooperative housing societies to use their amenity space for sports for kids in their respective residential complex.

Accordingly, the first such initiative would begin at Erandwane, Bagwe said, adding, "A sports camp is being organized by the housing society on its premises for children of the society. A professional trainer is also being hired. He will train the children in different kinds of sports. The committee will provide financial aid of around Rs 15,000 to the society for this."

While the civic body is busy making plans to kick off sporting activities in the city, civic activists fear that the funds would be misused by the elected representatives.

"The corporators are already diverting funds to projects that serve their own interests. Thus would be simply be another one of those initiatives, in which they would allot funds to societies of their choice," said a activist.

Again, PMC's initiative of rewarding sports persons for their achievement has also created much controversy, with political parties and civic groups accusing the ruling party corporators of rewarding sports persons of their choice.

The Indian Express                     28.03.2013

Only 22 clear BMC exam for engineers’ posts

Of the 13,000-odd applicants who sat for the written test for 400 vacancies of engineers at BMC, only 22 have passed. The recruitment examination not only tested the applicant's technical knowledge, but also mental ability and general knowledge.

This is the first time BMC conducted an online entrance exam for screening applicants for engineering posts and 17,000 applied.

"The pass percentage was kept at 50, but few candidates could clear that level. Most of them showed good skills in technical knowhow but lagged behind in mental ability, logical reasoning and GK," said a senior civic official. The administration is now lowering the pass percentage to 35, a senior civic official said.

"We will have to select the best 400 candidates. There is an urgent need for 400 candidates at present and we will add another 300 engineers to the current strength in a year," said J V Patgaonkar, city engineer department. These posts include sub-engineers and junior engineers in categories such as civil, mechanical and architects for crucial civic departments like roads, solid waste management, water supply and sewerage.

BMC, having had a poor experience in the past regarding performance of BMC engineers, had made the selection process for junior and executive engineers more stringent from this year. "There is a general notion that BMC engineers lack quality, which reflects in the service projects. BMC has earlier recruited engineers based just on their qualification and walk-in interviews. Most engineers who qualify are from other districts, which have a different examination system. It is easier to get higher marks at such places compared to the Mumbai University," said Rahul Shewale, Standing Committee chairman and Shiv Sena corporator.

Senior officials admit that the engineers recruited over the past few years did not match up to the standards of the civic administration. "Mostly, these recruits are from outside the city and do not have much knowledge about the civic and infrastructure related issues in Mumbai. In short, they aren't capable enough to work at the ground level," said a senior civic official.