Don’t have property? Sorry, no lease for you

Pune Mirror; Nitin Brahme; Friday, September 24, 2010;

The PMC has come out with a new rule for leasing its properties out

If you are born and brought up in Pune, and you want to take property on lease from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), then you can’t. That is, not if you don’t already own property within PMC limits.

Definitely not, if you’re from outside Pune.

The PMC has just floated a tender for leasing out its Shanipar properties, with the rider that if you are a property owner of the PMC, only then will you be eligible to bid for the tender.

As proof, you will have to submit the latest receipt of property tax paid to PMC.

RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar, who wrote a letter to PMC commissioner Mahesh Zagade about the issue, pointed out this pre-condition. In his letter, he wrote that this is conspiracy by PMC officials.

“It is very wrong and smells fishy. PMC has been compiling a list of its properties from 2004, but they are yet to come out with it. Actually, they don’t want to compile it. They are trying to create profit for some people with vested interests.

Aba Bagul, senior Congress leader, said this pre-condition was “very wrong”. He added that, on Friday, he wrote to PMC commissioner demanding uniform rules for tender processes.

“Just about any officer is making rules according to his whim, and for the benefit of the some people,” Bagul said.

Independent corporator Ujjwal Keskar said the PMC cannot set this kind of a pre-condition for any tender. “It is clear that the condition has been made for some vested interests,” he told Mirror.

When contacted, Sudhakar Telang, land acquisition officer, PMC, said, “The updating of the list of PMC’s properties is going on. PMC has formulated the rules for leasing its property in 2008.

And now, according to those rules, we are leasing out our properties. PMC has 3,000 properties. Out of these, we will float tenders for leasing out 200 properties.

We made this rule for our security purpose, but now it seems that it has taken a negative hue, so we will remove this rule very soon.