PMC's got mail, but nobody to check

PUNE: The callous attitude of civic officials towards administrative affairs came to the fore on Monday when Right to Information (RTI) activists found the letter boxes of all the departments, barring three, in the main building of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) not cleared since as long as 2006.
All the letter boxes, except that of the municipal commissioner's office, tax collection and assessment department and the city engineer's office, which are kept on the first floor of the building, do not have locks and were overflowing with sealed letters.
The RTI activists visited the PMC building to check some documents as municipal records are thrown open to citizens from 3 to 5 pm every Monday.
Some activists first noticed some letters lying on the floor near the shelves of the letter-boxes the first floor. As they tried to place the letters back in the box, they realised that most boxes were overflowing.
"We discovered this apathy accidentally. The doors of most of the letter boxes were open. Some boxes were filled to the brim and letters were seen kept on the boxes. When checked carefully, we found some sealed letters which were delivered in 2006-07," a visibly upset Vivek Velankar said.
Other activists Jugal Rathi, Vishwas Sahasrabuddhe and Pravin Bajaj, who were also present at the time of the discovery, also looked shocked. Rathi said it just shows the civic officials' attitude towards their work as they didn't even bother to collect some very important correspondence.
"We found that there was one letter from the information commissioner's office dated 2009 and it was unopened. Imagine if they give least importance to such an important letter, what can the citizens expect from them? There were also some legal notices, applications from job aspirants, dated 2007. They are playing with people's lives," Rathi said.
When contacted by TOI, municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade said it was shocking that such a thing was happening at the civic head-office. "I will not tolerate such negligence. Immediate action will be taken against those found responsible. It is a serious matter, and I will look into it without delay," he said.