Dangat, who lives in the Bhosari area, joined PCMC as a clerk in 1989, and was promoted as a senior clerk.
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) Tuesday terminated the services of an assistant municipal commissioner for violating the civic body’s two-child norm. On his part, Assistant Municipal Commissioner Sriniwas Dangat said he informed the civic body about his family and that he would approach the Bombay High Court against the order.
Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh issued the order late Tuesday, terminating the service of Dangat under the Maharashtra Civil Services (Declaration of a Small Family) Rules of 2005.
Sunil Joshi, Assistant Municipal Commissioner (Administration), PCMC, confirmed to The Indian Express that Dangat’s services have been terminated. “We had conducted a departmental inquiry against him after a complaint was received that he had more than two children which is not permitted under the Maharashtra Civil Services (Declaration of a Small Family) Rules. The rules came into effect from 2005. Employees who had three children before the Rules came into effect won’t lose their jobs,” Joshi said.
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The departmental inquiry against Dangat was conducted in 2022. “During the probe, it was found that Dangat had not submitted the declaration or affidavit about him having three children. He was given repeated reminders but he did not bother to submit the required information,” Joshi said.
He also said they have taken a declaration from every civic body employee about the number of children they have.
Dangat, who lives in the Bhosari area, joined PCMC as a clerk in 1989, and was promoted as a senior clerk. He became the administrative officer by appearing for an exam conducted by PCMC in 2013, and was promoted as assistant municipal commissioner in 2020.
Joshi said when Dangat was selected after the exam, he should have submitted the affidavit regarding his family but did not. He also said they should have taken action against Dangat long ago. “Yes, there was a delay in taking action against Dangat,” he said.
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When contacted, Dangat said he had not received the termination order. “But one of our colleagues forwarded it to me on my WhatsApp number,” Dangat, due to retire on February 28, said. “I have not erred. Yet they are holding me responsible.”
“Two of my kids were born before 2005, and the third was born in 2011. The Rules were framed in 2005 and came into effect in 2006. When my third kid was born, I informed the PCMC administration. I had submitted his birth certificate as well. The PCMC administration had then mentioned it in my Service Rule Book,” he said.
Dangat said he had not received any reminders from the PCMC administration regarding submitting an affidavit or declaration. “When the personal information was already included in the Service Rule Book, there was no need to submit any more information. But it is a fact that I did not receive any notice for submitting an affidavit,” he said.
Dangat said the complaint against him was lodged by a colleague. “I had taken action against a colleague for coming late to the office regularly. He then complained to PCMC that I had three children and that action should be taken against me,” he said.
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He also said he is not the only civic body official who has more than two children. “There are several, but I don’t want to make any complaint against them,” he said.
“Just when I was about to retire after 35 years of meritorious service, PCMC woke up to take action against me. This is unjust… I am approaching the court,” he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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