PUNE The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to scrutinise Class-I officials claiming a four-wheeler allowance, but still using PMC-provided vehicles.
In such cases, the four-wheeler allowance will now be recovered from the official’s salary.
In the PMC, there are 170 Class-I officials, including the commissioner, additional commissioner, zonal commissioners, heads of department (HoDs), superintendent engineers, assistant municipal commissioners, deputy commissioners, and assistant medical officers.
Executive engineers are eligible to use four-wheelers only for field visits, but they have to take permission from an additional commissioner.
The corporation pays ₹3,150 per month as a four- wheeler allowance to executive officers, and ₹4,200 per month for posts above the level of an executive officer.
On Monday, additional municipal commissioner Rubal Agarwal issued an order which stated: “We have come to know that some of the officers are taking travelling allowance as well as using PMC four-wheelers for officials (field) visits. As PMC Motor vehicle policy-2016, PMC provides four-wheelers to officials for official visits. However, it has been found that some of the assistant municipal commissioners and executive engineers are taking the benefit of both.”
Agarwal, in her order, added, “Normally, PMC gives travelling allowance to officers for field visits and those officers should not use PMC vehicles. The PMC vehicle department has been directed to collect and provide information, so that changes in the salary of concerned officials can be made. The chief accountant has also been directed to submit a report about officials taking both benefits and to recover the travelling allowance from salaries.”
{{/usCountry}}Agarwal, in her order, added, “Normally, PMC gives travelling allowance to officers for field visits and those officers should not use PMC vehicles. The PMC vehicle department has been directed to collect and provide information, so that changes in the salary of concerned officials can be made. The chief accountant has also been directed to submit a report about officials taking both benefits and to recover the travelling allowance from salaries.”
{{/usCountry}}Mahesh Doiphode, deputy commissioner of the motor vehicle department said, “We have given an order to the head of the department to provide information about vehicle and travelling allowance.”
Another senior official of the motor vehicle department, on condition of anonymity, said, “If we provide a four-wheeler to an officer then s/he is not liable to take a travelling allowance. If some officer wants a vehicle for a field or official visit, s/he will have to take permission from the head of department.”
He added, “For Covid-19 duties, we provided four- wheelers to most officials, where some officers are already taking a four-wheeler allowance. Now, we have started work to identify and scrutinise officials and submit a report to the IT and accounts’ departments.”
Vivek Velankar, civic activist, said, “It is a criminal offence to use taxpayer money illegally. The corporation should file a criminal case against the culprits. It is the only way to punish them. A departmental inquiry should not be part of the action against these officials.”