Focus on schools, PHCs, says Nilesh Gatne,

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, Aug 27: Aurangabad Zilla Parishad Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nilesh Gatne today said that he would focus on ZP schools and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and strive to bring about major development in their functioning.

Gatne, who took over charge of the office recently, interacted with senior editorial staff at Lokmat Bhavan today. Lokmat Group Editor-in-Chief Rajendra Darda, welcomed him.

The CEO expressed intent to implement Individual Beneficiary Schemes effectively by applying the principle of Most Deserving Gets the First benefit. He also spoke about the need for improving the efficiency of the staff. “Employees should develop love towards their work. Their should be coordination between staff of the different departments. At some taluka places ZP staff does not even know phone numbers of each other. Teachers form a chunk of the ZP staff. In the old days, ZP teachers were revered by students. However, today one is shocked at a variety of complaints received about teachers. We will stress upon ZP teachers the need to win back that old respect,” the officer, who has been promoted to the IAS rank recently, said.

Signing off, Gatne suggested that a ring road should be built around the city to ensure controlled development of the villages on the fringe of the city areas.

Cell for protection of ZP land

Aurangabad ZP has land at prime locations like Aurangpura, Chelipura High School. However, these properties have remained neglected and witnessed encroachments at some places. CEO Gatne said that a cell, comprising retired staff like circle officer, nayab tehsildar, survey officials and a professional will be set up to measure and identify ZP landed assets and ensure their protection and conservation. Gatne headed the project for land acquisition for Samruddhi Mahamarg and that experience will stand him in good stead here.

ZP annual funds position at a glace

District Planing Committee - Rs 139 crore

15th finance commission - Rs 100 crore

Independent funds from govt schemes - Rs 200 crore

Rs 924 crore - Salary grant from the government

Rs 30 crore - ZP cess income

Salient information about ZP

*11,000 employees in 14 departments, 8000 of them teachers.

*2200 schools

*51 PHCs, 279 sub-centres

*Plans for 4 new PHCs and 24 new sub-centres