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This is an archive article published on November 10, 2014

City rips apart PMPML’s ‘anti-commuter’ move

CMO says aware of issues, will bring an IAS officer who can turn things around

The transport body has cleared a proposal to hike fares by 20 per cent for travel above 6 km. The transport body has cleared a proposal to hike fares by 20 per cent for travel above 6 km.

PMPML, the city’s transport body that ferries 11 lakh plus commuters every day and is going through its worst phase, is likely to get a competent IAS officer who would be tasked with the specific objective of turning things around. The indication has come from none other than the Chief Minister’s Office.

The transport body has decided to increase the passenger fare by 20 per cent for a travel distance above 6 km.

Praveen Pardeshi, Principal Secretary in the CMO, said the government was aware of the problems faced by commuters in Pune. “We will soon be appointing a new IAS officer to head the  PMPML and bring it out of the crises,” he told The Indian Express.

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Pune-based civic organisations are trying to build pressure on the government to bring back Shrikar Pardeshi, the Inspector General of Registration (IGR), Maharashtra, giving him the additional charge of PMPML.

Currently, PCMC Commissioner Rajiv Jadhav holds the temporary charge of  PMPML chairman and managing director after the retirement of C N Joshi. Till he retired, Joshi had remained under fire from commuter groups for “doing nothing” to make the transport body commuter-friendly and reduce the number of private vehicles congesting the city roads. The CMO said it was aware of the criticism that Joshi came under in Pune. “That’s why we will ensure that an officer who could turn PMPML around is appointed,” said an official in the CMO.

Jugal Rathi of the PMP Pravasi Manch said they would urge the principal secretary to personally monitor the functioning of the PMPML. “PMPML has been down in the dumps. Its management has taken it deeper into the pits. PMC and PCMC have contributed in different measures for the downfall of the transport organisation,” he said.

Rathi said the manch would write to the principal secretary on Monday, requesting him to hand over additional charge of PMPML to Shrikar Pardeshi. “During his short stint last year, Pardeshi had taken some steps to tone up the functioning of PMPML. His biggest step of doing away with loose change effectively reduced the daily arguments between conductors and commuters and increased the passenger traffic,” he said.

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Prashant Inamdar of Pedestrians First said PMPML needed an officer who would take decisive actions. “Pardeshi is known for his decisive actions. He did that in PCMC and also in PMPML during his short stint. If Pardeshi is given additional charge, we are sure the anti-commuter policies of PMPML would stop and it would see better days,” 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 demanded....The 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.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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