PMC anti-bribe helpline

Patna: Residents can register complaints against any municipal official who demands a bribe or is involved in corruption on a helpline number launched by the Patna Municipal Corporation.

The civic body issued the helpline number on Saturday, on the initiative of new municipal commissioner Anupam Kumar Suman.

Deputy municipal commissioner Vishal Anand confirmed to The Telegraph the civic body’s new initiative. Residents can register their complaint on pmc.reform@gmail.com, on a WhatsApp number (9431045915) or fax (0612- 2200691).

Anand said this will dissuade civic body workers from engaging in corruption or demanding bribe from people approaching them for civic work. “People who ask for bribe in the municipal corporation office will now think twice,” he added.

Kankerbagh resident Shilpi Sinha praised the PMC’s decision. “I can only hope that the authorities take action against the officials concerned if the complaints are proven correct,” she said.

The civic body has also decided to introduce biometric attendance for its sanitation labourers.

“In a day or two, we will write to the Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation Limited to provide us technical help in starting the biometric attendance system for our sanitation workers,” said Anand. “It is a long-awaited plan of the PMC, which so far could not be executed because of different reasons. But now we will introduce this programme to ensure transparency in the system. We will be able to track labourers – if they have visited wards for sanitation work or skipped duty on a particular day.”

The civic body, Anand added, issued a notification on Monday to link the bank accounts of PMC labourers with their Aadhaar numbers.

The Biharsharif Municipal Corporation already has biometric attendance for 500 sanitation labourers in place to prevent cases of proxy attendance.

Courtesy: The Telegraph