A Correspondent mailbag@ mid- day. com OBJECTING to the hiring freeze enforced by Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi, the Shiv Sena claimed that the civic body is being privatised through the hiring and spending of crores on private professionals.
Group leader Vishakha Raut had demanded details of how many fellows and officers on special duty ( OSD) were working in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ( BMC) and the expenditure incurred on them. The BMC administration replied that it has so far spent R 78 lakh on Fellows, the municipal commissioneru2019s personal assistance and a media advisor.
Raut questioned the BMC spending crores on Fellows and OSDs when it has cited a cash crunch for the hiring freeze. There are 15 Fellows appointed in various civic departments who are assisting municipal bosses. There is also a newly appointed OSD in Mayor Kishori Pednekaru2019s office.
The 15 Fellows in BMC are paid a monthly salary of R 75,000 each.
Till January, the total spending on them has been R 11.25 lakh. These are the ones hired by the state government last year under the Chief Ministeru2019s Fellowship Programme.
Their one- year tenure will last till October 2020, till when the civic body will have spent R 1.10 crore on their salaries. Whereas, Pardeshiu2019s personal assistant is paid a monthly salary of R 65,000 u2014 total spending so far being R 5.13 lakh. This tenure will end in March.
The media advisor appointed in 2016 has so far cost R 61.77 lakh.
While the OSD in Pednekaru2019s office is being paid R 1.25 lakh per month.
u201c There is no need for these Fellows as they are working only inside BMCu2019s corridors. We need people on the ground who can do supervisory work. The freeze on hiring is not needed,u201d Raut said.
u2018 Stop privatising BMC through OSDs, Fellowsu2019
