24x7 water scheme: MP Vandana Chavan wants CAG to probe data corruption incident in PMC

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) member of parliament (MP) Vandana Chavan has written to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) requesting a probe into the crucial data going corrupt in Pune municipal corporation (PMC). Last week, the civic officials said that data pertaining to 24x7 water scheme has gone corrupt, raising serious questions about PMC’s IT operations..

Chavan wrote the letter to Rajiv Mehrishi, CAG of India, asking for an inquiry into the case. As the letter has been sent by sitting MP of Rajya Sabha, the CAG will need to act on it and ask clarification from the PMC.

Chavan said, “Computer data of any institute, specially that of a responsible organisation, is of utmost importance. Needless to say that its security, back-up system and several other factors should be given great attention.”

It has come as a shocking revelation that in a letter dated September 24, 2018, the PMC had written to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) seeking a three months extension on its balance sheet as some data had got corrupted and some was lost due to failure of its IT system, Chavan said.

She said that it is learnt that the entire system and software was allegedly not tested by the IT department. The installation of the new IT system had itself run into controversies with many questioning the alleged favouritism shown towards some companies/agencies. From the tender process to the installation and use, the PMC has allegedly shown a biased and lackadaisical attitude to its IT data system.

Chavan said, “It is unfortunate that the PMC IT department’s failure to ‘secure’ its extremely vital data and its casual approach now leading to finding itself in a tight spot over its inability to submit a balance sheet of approximately Rs 5,500 crores due to data corruption certainly does not augur well for a city wanting to become ‘Smart’.”