Civic utility looks to replace recently purchased batteries

The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) board on Wednesday asked the company to submit a technical evaluation of the company’s recent purchase of a brand of batteries.

Last month,an employee had suffered burns when a battery burst. According to the sources,the battery was new. After this,three other battery equipment burst as employees were working on them,said the office bearers of the PMT Kamgar Sangh (INTUC). “PMPML has informed the board that it has stopped purchasing the batteries and has reverted to the old brand. The purchase of the new batteries was not on the annual contract list,it was done without the permission of the board,” said PMPML board member Shyam Deshpande,also the PMC standing committee chairperson. He said that the board had asked the company to look into the matter.While a PMPML officer maintained that it could be the fault of the worker as well,it is alleged that all these batteries were new and recently procured against the more reliable brands. “The company should discard the remaining batteries as well. It had bought 70,four have burst but the rest should be removed as well,” said Dileep Mohite of PMT Kamgar Sangh (INTUC).