Mayor's vacant bungalow gets cooks, stirs row

PUNE: The appointment of cooks for the unoccupied mayor's bungalow has been questioned by a citizens' group.
Mayor Vaishali Bankar has written a letter to the establishment department seeking a cook and two assistants for him. The mayor wants them shifted to her bungalow on Ghole road which has remained largely unoccupied since 2005.
"The cooks demanded by the mayor are supposed to work in civic hospitals.Sometimes, poor people admitted here do not have food of their own. These cooks provide them service. But now the mayor wants them. We are opposed to this move," Ajay Vaishampayan, secretary of UV group, told TOI.
Bankar said, "The bungalow is used for conducting programmes of the NCP. Party meetings are held here. Hence the need for cooks. I too stay here sometimes." Bankar became the mayor in early 2012 but has stayed in her own house at Satavwadi in Hadapsar.
Mangesh Joshi, deputy municipal commissioner (general) establishment department, said, "There is no official appointment of cooks and helpers for the mayor's house. The cooks that have been appointed by the Pune municipal corporation (PMC) are supposed to work with the health department."
Work on the mayor's bungalow started in 2003 and was finished in 2005. The PMC had spent nearly Rs 1.5 crore on the house which is located on 20,000 sq ft land near Ghole Road ward office in Shivajinagar.
However, the bungalow has remained largely unoccupied as most mayors have preferred to stay in their own homes. Vaishali Bankar, the present mayor, too has followed the trend.