Curbs demanded on civic charity in Pune

Social activists from Pune on Friday met the chief minister, Prithviraj Chavan, and sought rules to control donations by municipal corporations. The move comes in the backdrop of complaints by civic activists that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is wasting money by donating crores of rupees to private events.

President of the non-governmental organisation (NGO), Creative Foundation (CF), Sandip Khardekar, met Chavan in the city and made the demand. He said Chavan agreed to the demand and assured him that the rules would be in place soon.

In a statement to the chief minister, Khardekar and president of the NGO, Surajya Sangharsha Samiti, Vijay Kumbhar, said in the last few years there have been many incidents of the PMC giving illegal donations and sponsorships. Public funds in crores of rupees are wasted in this way and the state government orders violated. They said a demand was made for guidelines and rules on donations by all municipal corporations.

The then chief minister, Ashok Chavan, initiated action, but later the issue got caught in red tape. The activists demanded that the chief minister immediately prepared rules on  donations, which would prevent such provisions in the next civic budget too.