Dinesh Kamath's news "CIDCO celebrates Vigilance Awareness Week; Pledging ‘Integrity in Governance’" that was published in Newsband

CIDCO celebrates Vigilance Awareness Week 

Pledging ‘Integrity in Governance’

By Dinesh Kamath and Chandrashekhar Hendve

Above: Seen in both the pictures are Shri Sanjay Bhatia, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, CIDCO and Smt V Radha, Joint Managing Director

CBD-BELAPUR: “This year we celebrated Vigilance Awareness Week with a motive ‘Preventive Vigilance as a tool for good governance’. Preventive Vigilance is not just for today or for a week; it’s a year long process which involves changing minds. As real change comes from within, this year we launched ‘Changing Minds’ as an initiative not just to change the mindset of people, but to bring integrity in life, society and governance,” said Shri Sanjay Bhatia Vice Chairman and Managing Director, CIDCO at a lecture on ‘Transparent Administration through Vigilance and Spiritualism’ at the Vigilance Awareness Programme held today on October 27 at CIDCO Bhavan.

Dignitaries present for this programme were Shri Sanjay Bhatia, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, CIDCO, Smt V Radha, Joint Managing Director, Shri Rajendra Chavan, Joint Managing Director and Shri Sunil Kendrekar, Chief Administrator (New Towns), CIDCO. Also, present on this occasion were CIDCO officers and employees, students and principals from various schools of Navi Mumbai and the members of the newly formed Vigilance Stakeholders Committee.

To change the minds of the people and involve them in spiritualism, Shri Sanjay Bhatia made a special lecture on ‘Vigilance and Spiritualism’. He added, “Though Vigilance and Spiritualism are two different aspects, the common part in both is awareness. Awareness comes from within and further it stimulates into realisation.” At the lecture, he shared some of his life experiences and later conducted a demonstration on meditation for about 15 mins. 

To enlighten about this awareness week campaign, Dr. Pradnya Sarvade, Chief Vigilance Officer said, “My aim is to bring environment of integrity in the corporation thereby making the roles and functions of the administration clear and efficient. The whole motive is to bring accountability in the public services and promise to protect good and fight against the evil.”

She further added saying, “To bring transparency in the administration and departmental processes, we have launched several citizen centric initiatives like vigilance webpage wherein citizens can fearlessly complaint against corruption. Also, with the help of the departmental process manuals uploaded on the webpage, citizens can find detailed administrative and department procedures and processes of the corporation.”

Talking further on the vigilance awareness programme, Shri Rajendra Chavan said, “There will be no work burden if everyone efficiently works as per the guidelines of the organisation. We have to set a framework that each citizen who comes to the corporation has some purpose, and we must help them in fulfilling their needs.”

To make vigilance more accountable, for the first time we have formed Vigilance Stakeholders Committee comprising of eminent personalities of Navi Mumbai like Shri Sandeep Thakur, RTI Activist, Shri Santosh Shukla, RTI Activist, Shri A K Bhattacharya, Navi Mumbai, Chairman, Navi Mumbai Housing Society Federation, Shri Mallinath Gaikwad of Panvel and Urban Taluka Housing Society Federation, Shri Devang Trivedi, President Builders Association of Navi Mumbai, Shri V Venugopal, Additional Chief Planner (NAINA), and Shri Vijay Patil, Chief Lands Survey Officer, CIDCO.

CIDCO started its vigilance awareness campaign involving various schools of Navi Mumbai. An essay competition was held at various schools in Navi Mumbai for the students of std VIII to X on October 16, 2015. The topic for the competition was ‘Be the change to make the change’. The essay competition got an immense response as more than 9000 students participated. CIDCO received 25 best essay entries on October 23, 2015.  The team of experts scrutinized the essays and selected two best essays. Shri Sanjay Bhatia felicitated the winners. The first prize was awarded to Ms Aisha Anwar Khan of St Lawrence High School, Vashi with a cash prize of Rs 5000, gold medal, a certificate. While second prize was awarded to Ms Rajpriya Bhattacharya of New Horizon Public School, Airoli with cash prize of Rs 3000, gold medal, a certificate. Both the schools were awarded a Rolling Trophy for winning the prizes.

Shri K. K Verkhedkar, Chief Engineer Navi Mumbai gave vote of thanks to all the dignitaries present during the programme. The programme indeed received an immense response. The programme was compared by Dr. Mohan Ninawe, Sr. Public Relations Officer, CIDCO. The CIDCO Vigilance department under the guidance of Dr. Pradnya Sarvade worked proficiently to make this programme successful. The programme concluded by taking the vigilance awareness pledge.