PUNE: Close on the heels of the Congress, its ruling ally - the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) - on Thursday came down heavily on the administration of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), saying it was going from bad to worse and needed some immediate stimulant to wake it from the deep slumber it had gone into.

In what appeared to be more than a mere coincident, mayor Mohan Singh Rajpal and Leader of the House Nilesh Nikam in separate briefings to the press said the administration had proved itself to be ‘hopelessly inefficient,’ in all spheres of management.

“Municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade needs to understand that delegating authority does not mean disposing files. It is time he does something proactively and set an example,” the mayor said, referring to the commissioner’s often repeated statement that he had decentralised the administration.

“From what I see it is apparent that the administration has adopted a negative attitude towards every work we take to them,” the mayor said.

The mayor also vehemently denied that the PMC was in the red. “I don’t think the revenue expenses have crossed alarming levels, as put by the commissioner to the standing committee,” the mayor said, adding that the commissioner should sit down and explain to everyone if the budget implementation had indeed gone wrong to the extent he had shown it to be.

Tenders are being floated at such a slow pace that it would be impossible for the projects to get on way even by the end of the financial year, the mayor said.

FLOOD REHAB CAMPS NEED ATTENTION

Leader of the Opposition and senior NCP leader Nilesh Nikam said he had reached his wits end trying to attract attention of the administration to the issues in the flood-affected rehabilitation camps at various places in the city. There are nearly 10,000 tenements in various flood rehabilitation camps in the city demanding grant of additional FSI on par with other areas in the city, for the last three years.

The general body has, in fact, cleared the demand way back on 2007, but the administration refuses to endorse it, Nikam said, alleging that the general body resolution had been sent to the town planning department with frivolous queries. On the other hand, the administration has found enough powers with it to unilaterally approve decisions like 100 metres high buildings and change of use of parking lots, Nikam said.