PUNE: Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials conducted a protest meeting at PMC building on Tuesday and demanded the arrest of senior Congress leader Arvind Shinde and Corporator Ravindra Dhangekar for manhandling Additional Municipal Commissioner Rajendra Nimbalkar over allegations of corruption in the tender process of hyacinth removal at the Mayor’s office in front of city Mayor Mukta Tilak on Monday afternoon.
On late Monday night, Nimbalkar filed a police complaint against Shinde and Dhangeka and 15 unidentified Congress party workers at Shivajinagar police station. Police have charged the accused of unlawful assembly, rioting, assault intentional insult and obstructing public servant for discharging of government duty. Meanwhile, Arvind Shinde got ad-interim bail from Pune Judicial Magistrate of First Class (JMFC) on Tuesday.
After the incident, PMC engineers union and employee union conducted a protest meeting in the morning. PMC officials in protest did not take part in the Standing Committee meeting on Tuesday.
During the meeting, the union issued a warning that they will stop PMC work for an indefinite time if the police does not arrest Shinde, Dhangekar and other party workers. Additional Municipal Commissioner Rubal Agarwal, City Engineer Prashant Waghmare, Joint Municipal Commissioner Dyneshwar Molak, Chief Accountant Ulka Kalaskar and other senior officials were present in the meeting.
While addressing officials and employees, PMC Commissioner Saurabh Rao said, “It is a very miserable incident. Administration and police have taken cognisance of the incident. District Guardian Minister Girish Bapat is looking into the matter and he has taken information about the incident. We will continue our protest but we will continue our work for convenience of the citizens.”
Additional Municipal Commissioner Rajendra Nimbalkar said, “When we came to know about higher rate tender of hyacinth removal, it was decided to cancel it. On the other side, the tender was floated for 3 years and not for one year. However, agitators were deliberately ignoring the facts, as they wanted to create a mess. They used abusive words. Despite that, I was ready to settle the matter if Shinde and Dhangekar would have given a written apology to me. But they refused to do so. Therefore, I have filed a police complaint against them to give a strong message to people who are taking officials causally. Hence, we are demanding their arrest .”
Mukta Manohar, a PMC employee union leader, said, “Politicians should not consider that they are non-corrupt. Everyone knows who is doing corruption and the transfer of PMC officials. It is very bad to manhandle any official. We are supporting officials and demanding arrest of Shinde and Dhangekar.”
MANHANDLING OF CIVIC OFFICIAL
After the incident, PMC engineers union and employee union conducted a protest meeting in the morning. PMC officials in protest did not take part in the Standing Committee meeting on Tuesday.
