A total of 288 employees of 23 Gram Panchayats of Panvel Taluka in Raigad district have been included in the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) after the Urban Development department approved the Konkan commissioner’s recommendation. These Gram Panchayats were included in the PMC when it was formed in 2016.
However, their employees could not be included due to delays from the District council.
While these employees were working for the municipal corporation, they were employees of district council. So, they were not getting benefits from the corporation. They were demand it since the formation of the corporation and even they had staged protest.
Panvel MLA Prashant Thakur who has been advocating to include these employees in the corporation welcomed the decision. “After PMC was formed on October1, 2016, these 23 Gram Panchayats in the taluka were included.
Employees working in these gram panchayats had consistently demanded to be included in the municipal corporation, but the inclusion process was delayed due to lack of necessary cooperation from the Zilla Parishad,” said Thakur.
After multiple protests from employees, the Urban Development department of state government set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Konkan Commissioner. The Konkan Commissioner submitted the report to the Urban Development Department on January 25, 2019.
Despite the report was submitted, there was no decision. Gram Panchayat employees staged protest for the delay. Finally, the Urban Development Department) approved the inclusion of 288 employees in the municipal corporation early this week.
A senior civic official from PMC says that these employees will be treated as civic employees and they will equal benefits. “We hope that they will continue to work for the corporation and implement civic scheme in the villages effectively,” said the official.
MLA Thakur said that PMC was established four years but these employees became part of it today. “This has happened because of collective efforts of the civic administration, employees representative Advocate Suresh Thakur among others.
“We are hopeful the process to accommodate 288 employees will be completed very soon,” added Thakur.
