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As Cong seeks curbs on permissions for new constructions, PMC chief says ‘Will bring fundamental changes to improve citizens' lives'
EVEN as the Congress urged Pune Municipal Corporation to put curbs on new constructions in congested parts of the city, Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram said he was currently looking into problems faced by the city and will soon introduce fundamental changes aimed at easing the lives of Puneites.
'I have just taken charge… Currently, I am busy studying the problems the city is facing. Once I have studied the problems, I intend to bring in fundamental changes to better the lives of citizens,' the PMC chief said on Sunday evening.
Ram was responding to a demand raised by the Congress in a letter to PMC, urging it to put curbs on giving permissions to new constructions in congested parts of the city, where adequate infrastructure was missing.
'I went around the city today. Though it was Sunday, there were traffic snarls on congested and narrow roads of the city. During the inspection, I found that only 16 per cent of the stormwater drain work has been completed. It seems PMC is lagging on ensuring adequate basic amenities,' he said.
Ram said after studying the problems in the city, he would take all necessary steps to alleviate miseries of people. 'I will study all the suggestions and feedback I get from citizens… And will initiate necessary steps, especially in regard to ensuring basic amenities, including proper stormwater drains, parking facilities, good roads and a better garbage disposal system,' he said.
In its letter sent to the PMC chief, the Congress emphasised improving basic infrastructure in the city. The party has urged the commissioner to take strong steps to make life better for citizens. 'We would like to draw the attention of the new PMC commissioner to the absence of adequate and efficient basic infrastructure in the congested parts of Pune city. Roads are narrow, storm water drains get choked even after just one heavy deluge, traffic snarls are common, parking problem has become a big headache… you name it and the citizens in the congested and old parts of the city are grappling with inadequate basic infrastructure,' said Congress spokesperson Gopal Tiwari.
The Congress said it was expecting positive steps from the PMC chief. 'We have sent a letter to the PMC commissioner highlighting the problems faced by the citizens in congested parts of the city. We expect that he will initiate positive steps in this regard,' Tiwari said.
'The population of Pune city is increasing day by day and the pressure of additional external growth areas is also coming on the PMC. Traffic congestion and parking issues are becoming severe day by day. But the PMC without applying its mind is indiscriminately giving permission to multi-storeyed buildings up to 25-30 floors. Additional FSIs and TDRs are on a roll. But roads below the towering buildings have not been widened for 50 years. Be it Ghole Road, Apte Road, Bhandarkar Road, Prabhat Road, the situation is similar everywhere in congested parts of the city. The roads are not in a position to take the increasing load of traffic. The storm water drains are inadequate…. and the PMC chief should take steps to first curb permissions for new constructions,' said Tiwari, who is also the founder of the Rajiv Gandhi Smarak Samiti.
Tiwari said the Development Plan or Town Plan needs to be revised. 'There is a need to revise the DP and TP so that they are framed taking into consideration the changing times. Especially, there is need to reserve ample parking space for two-wheelers and four-wheelers. If this is done, Pune City will become a chaotic city. Strong steps are needed now. There should be no compromise on this front,' he said.
Tiwari said the PMC Standing Committee still exists though and an elected body is not in place. There is an 'Audit Sub-Committee' and audit reports of the work of various civic departments are placed before the Standing Committee which takes a decision on it.
'It is a necessary for the people of Pune to understand what action has been taken on the audit reports of the last three years,' he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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