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Civic activists, NGOs ask PMC to stop spending money on jute bags, benches
Civic activists and various organisation have demanded PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar to not spend money on items like benches, garbage containers and jute bags
PUNE Civic activists and various organisation have demanded that municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar should not spend money on items like benches, garbage containers and jute bags, even though the general body has cleared the expenditure for the same.
During the peaks of the Covid-19 pandemic the commissioner had banned elected members from unnecessary spending on garbage containers, jute bags and the installation of benches at various locations in the city.
The NGO Parivartan claimed that a survey conducted allegedly showed expenditure on said items not being audited.
At the general body meeting on Monday, all elected party members unanimously approved a proposal to start expenditure on the said items, approving a total buget of Rs5 lakh for each listed item.
Civic activist Vivek Velankar in a letter to the municipal commissioner said: “Though elected members approved it, stop this unnecessary spending.”
The City Eye organsation has also written a letter to the commissioner saying, “Every year elected members purchased jute bags. An audit will find that as per the records, jute bags purchased are more than the city’s population. But, hardly a few people got the bags. It means in the name of jute bags, all this money is going in to someone’s pocket, as there is no audit for same.”
Parivartan’s Indraneel Sadalge said, “If the elected members want to procure all this, they should stop putting their names on it. If the administration banned elected members claiming to drive purchases from tax payers’ money, it will stop.”
