After the controversy over the omission of Jammu and Kashmir in its 2008-09 Environment Status Report map (ESR), the Pune Municipal Corporation has put the blame on two of its officers and has decided to hold back their next annual salary hike.

Blacklisting the firm that printed the ESR, the civic body has seized the deposit of Rs 17,000.

The PMC general body meeting, held on Wednesday to discuss various environmental issues as stated in ESR, again witnessed a heated debate over the map issue and Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Zagade had to finally stand up and read out the findings and recommendations of the K C Karkar committee, appointed to probe the matter.

The issue had come to the fore during the general body meeting in October the last week. The cover page of the ESR showed the map of India without the state of Kashmir, which drew much ire from the corporators, cutting across party lines.

As soon as the meeting started, some corporators raised the issue. Reading out from the committee report, Zagade said, “The map that figured on the ESR was downloaded from www.worldatlas.com, which was erroneous. However, the printing of the map on the cover page of the report was not on purpose, as nobody realised the mistake.”

The report has put A C Printers, the publishing contractor of PMC, in the dock for not verifying the map before it was published. Chief of PMC environment cell Mangesh Dighe and deputy commissioner Bhanudas Mane have been held responsible for this goof-up, as “it was their duty to cross check the report for any objectionable content.”

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