To,
1) Hon'ble Mrs. Vaishali Bankar,
Mayor, Pune Municipal Corporation
Pune.
2) Hon'ble Mr. Mahesh Pathak, IAS,
Commissioner, Pune Municipal Corporation
Pune
Dear Madam /Sir,
Recently some of the elected members of the
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and an officer from PMC visited the City of Suseong -gu and signed a Memorandum of
Understanding for friendly exchange between two cities. As per this MoU both
cities shall establish close friendly relationship to develop cooperation based
on mutual respect and benefit.
It is a good thing that Pune city is trying
to established friendly relations with a
foreign city so long as it is within the four boundaries of the law of the land.
According to the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act, approval from the General Body of the
Corporation is mandatory for all acts done on behalf of PMC. It is
inconceivable that the Mayor goes against the provisions of the BPMC Act. Hence,
I shall be obliged if you can make these approvals
public.
.JPG)
As per established norms, the responsibility for establishing friendly
relations with foreign countries vests with the Central Government. Or at
least permission of such departments is essential before developing friendly
relations with foreign cities. I request you to make such permissions public.
According to reference No.
II/21022/58(97)/2011-FCRA-I, Government of India/Bharat Sarkar, Ministry of Home
Affairs/Grih Mantralaya, Foreigners Division (FCRA Wing), “No member of a
Legislature or office-bearer of a political party or Judge or Government
servant or employee of any corporation or any other body owned or controlled by
the Government shall, while visiting any country or territory outside India, accept,
except with the prior permission of the Central Government, any foreign hospitality.”
Please also let the public have the
prior permission taken from the Central Government for this tour to Korea.
As per MoU both cities shall improve
understanding of residents of the region and shall support exchange activities
in education, culture, medicine, economy, urban development and areas of mutual
concern. Developing relations for
activities in education, culture, medicine, economy, urban development with
foreign countries is the responsibility of ministries or departments concerned of
the Central Government and instructions exist in this regard. Has PMC appropriated these responsibilities
to itself from the ministries or departments concerned? I request you to
make copies of these appropriations available to the public.
As per the MoU, both cities shall promote
mutual exchange based on this MOU and shall do their best to promote exchanges in the private sector. This MoU
was signed on 12th June 2013 and Committee members were in Suseong -
gu until 17 June. Hence, there must have
been discussions about mutual exchanges with the private sector also. I
request you to make the minutes of such discussions public.
