Pune Municipal Corporation plans to hand over ownership of police stations, post offices, MSEDCL offices to departments concerned

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is considering making a policy decision to hand over ownership of properties allotted to essential services in the Development Plan (DP) by charging compensation instead of leasing them out.

If the policy is formulated, properties leased out to services such as police stations, post offices, MSEDCL offices, etc, will be owned by the respective departments.

Places are reserved for essential services such as police stations, post offices, MSEDCL offices, etc, in the PMC’s Development Plan. The civic body acquires land from their owners and leases it out to essential services. Such properties are not used for any other purpose and government offices set up on them are usually not shifted too. The civic body, in rare cases, can change land reservation, if it is not in use for long.

Government offices do not pay rent regularly. The PMC also acquires land used by essential services for its projects, for which the civic body has to pay compensation. Mostly, the PMC and services-providing government agencies settle bills payable to each other, instead of paying in cash. For this purpose, they need a big manpower.

Therefore, the PMC is considering a way out of the issue. It is planning to hand over the ownership of such properties to the respective agencies instead of leasing them out. The PMC will hand over land of equal value to a government agency if it has also acquired the agency-owned land. It will also settle bills of these agencies payable to the PMC by taking over land/property of the same value owned by the agencies. Before formulating a policy on the issue, discussions among various departments have been held, said senior civic officials.

Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Estates Department, PMC, Mahesh Patil said, “Primary discussions are underway to hand over the ownership of reserved properties to the respective departments of the central and state governments. Further action will be taken only after discussing the issue at all levels.”