Bandh cripples city,not civic departments

At Sassoon General Hospital,though doctors were present,there were very few patients. Dr Arun Jamkar,Dean,B J Medical College and Sassoon General hospital said on a normal day,the OPD sees more than 1,200 patients and there are over 100 admissions. Due to the bandh,there were only 700 patients with 58 admissions. A total of 28 surgeries were performed. At YCM Hospital in Pimpri,the OPD attendance was affected. According to Dr Anand Jagdaley,medical superintendent,several patients who were to be discharged after treatment decided to postpone it by a day. “These were mostly those who stay in places like Chakan,Junnar and Manchar. There were incidents of stone-pelting at buses. So patients decided not to take a chance and stayed back in the hospital.”

Dr V L Yemul,medical administrator at KEM Hospital,said,doctors were available at the OPD but the number of patients was relatively few.

Dr Prasad Muglikar,medical director at Jehangir Hospital,echoed similar views.

Smaller clinics were also affected by the bandh. Dr Avinash Bhondwe,former president of the city unit of Indian Medical Association (Pune branch),said,he received several calls from patients who were unable to visit the clinic but had to seek treatment for some common ailments. While ambulances were available for emergencies,most patients could not visit clinics owing to lack of transport facilities.

Petrol pumps choose to remain shut,suffer heavy losses
In order to avoid any untoward incident during the bandh called by the Bharatiya Janata Party,almost all petrol pumps in the city remained closed till afternoon incurring a huge loss.

“Due to the bandh,almost all petrol pump owners preferred to keep pumps closed. Our association had issued directives on Sunday saying the dealers can keep the pumps open or shut after judging the situation in their areas. But they opted to keep the pumps shut fearing untoward incidents. This also led to huge losses for petrol dealers in the city,” said Ali Daruwala,spokesperson of the Petrol Dealers Association in Pune.

“The local party workers had distributed pamphlets appealing us to observe the bandh. Hence,we decided to keep the pumps closed fearing arson as the mob could go berserk. But most of the pumps started operations after 4.30 pm,” he said.

Daruwala said since people knew about the bandh,they had got their necessary fill of petrol on Sunday itself.

There are about 350 petrol pumps in Pune metropolitan area with 120 in Pune city,70 in Pimpri-Chinchwad area and the remaining on the outskirts.

Civic body functions as usual,marks 92% staff attendance
With citizens prefering to stay at home,the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Monday wore a deserted look despite the staff turning up.

The civic administration also managed to provide regular services by increasing security at its offices.

“There was no impact of the bandh on the functioning of the civic body and the civic offices recorded over 92 per cent attendance. All civic services functioned as usual,” said Shivaji Daundkar,PMC Labour officer.

To ensure that crucial services were not hampered,the civic body had increased security at water pumping stations and sewage treatment plant.

Municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade had directed the staff not to participate in the bandh and report to work on time. The staff was warned of action if they failed to attend office. Most of the civic employees have been deputed to services facilitating smooth movement of palkhi that passed through the city. Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal and municipal commissioner welcomed the devotees into the city.

Bus,rickshaw services hit,no hitches in train,flight operations
While the state transport bus and autorickshaw services were badly hit by the bandh,it did not affect trains and flights services.

Even though autorickshaws were seen on the roads,the number was drastically low. “We had not made it mandatory for autorickshaw owners to keep their vehicles off the roads. However,most of them supported the bandh and did not do operate the rickshaws,” said Baba Adhav,president of Rickshaw Panchayat.

Meanwhile,barring a few disturbances,the Pune division of Central Railway ran their services as per regular schedule. The L-12 Pune-Lonavala local train was detained at Ghorawadi station for some time in the morning. About 15 Shiv Sena workers,including Sena MLA Gajanan Babar,were arrested by the Railway Protection Force under Section 174 & 147 Railway Act after they stopped L-11 Lonavala-Pune at Pimpri station for a few minutes. They were later released on bail,said a press note released by the railway administration.

“Though the agitators tried to stop the Pune-Mumbai Deccan Express,the train departed at the scheduled time of 3.30 pm,” said a railway official.

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) had taken precautionery measures. “The number of trips from Swargate depot came down to 24 from the regular 96 till afternoon. We took all the buses travelling to Mumbai off the roads and installed safety nets to about 20 buses,” said Vijay Divate,manager of Swargate depot. The transport body incurred losses as people cancelled their travel plans.

The bandh did not have any impact on flights flying in and out of Pune. Captain Deepak Shastri,airport director said,“There was absolutely no impact on the flight services from the Pune airport. The operations were on just like any other day.”

The Pune-Mumbai Express Highway also witnessed sparse traffic.