Although the topic of his lecture at the Vasant Vyakhyanmala was ``Clean administration,'' Bhatia could not resist himself from disclosing some of the civic plans at the forum.

At the outset, Bhatia expressed his gratitude for the support given to him by the citizens and said that the only way to ``repay the debt'' was to work wholeheartedly for the development of Pune.

In the last eight to ten days, he said, hundreds of people had come to meet him with numerous complaints which have not been attended for years together. ``This is what is undemocratic about the system that we do not know what is happening to the people at the grassroot level. I would never have known the maladministration that exists at the grassroot level if the complaints were not made to me.''

Bhatia announced that every complaint made by any citizen will be attended and disposed within a time limit. The PMC will give reasons if any work remain incompleted.

On the issue of demolitions, Bhatia made it clear that the PMC will not touch any residential houses, even if notices have been served to them earlier. ``We do not want to render people homeless, but in the next few days you will see demolition actions which are minor ones - where constructions which are a nuisance to the residents will be razed.''

He added that a list of unauthorised constructions will be released next week for public information and scrutiny. ``The people may question why a particular structure is in the list or why is it not included.''

Relevant portions of the civic budget will be placed before the citizens. The people should know on which projects the money is spent. PMC has begun the plan of decentralisation of powers to the officers at the ward-level. Some budgetary reallocations are being made to provide facilities to the offices for efficient work. For improving cleanliness, more containers and bulk-carriers are being purchased.

Bhatia said he had given top priority for slum improvement and a separate plan is being contemplated on their rehabilitation. ``The living conditions in the slums are so filthy and sometimes people do not have their food. Slums are the focal points of infectious diseases and there is a risk that they may spread. It is for these reasons that the slum upgradation programme was being taken on priority,'' he maintained.

``It is very deplorable that no officer speaks about corruption at the official level meetings,'' Bhatia said.

He appealed citizens not to give any money to anyone in the PMC for getting any work done. ``It may take a month for getting your work done, but you must try and see that you do not give any money.'' He also declared that the citizens will have access to any files with the official notings on them.

Bhatia stressed that the right to information alone will help people to make suggestions and criticisms about the programmes implemented for them. He said sarcastically, ``We are the largest democracy in the world without the right to information. The bad elements in the system should be punished and the good people should be brought in. By doing this, one is doing no harm, but on the contrary is serving the people,'' he observed.

He maintained the good persons who detect corrupt practices in their departments should be given incentives. He also stressed that there should be a physical audit of all the programmes and projects, wherein one knows the quality and quantity of the material used for the work.

There was a huge turnout for Bhatia's lecture.