My City My Take: Pune has a great environment for creative people to bloom, says Omkar Jadhav

It is also praiseworthy how citizen groups interact with the local government. A lot of small groups have their own initiatives, they come together and try to give feedback to the government. So there is a connection between the local government and different organisations and citizens.

What would you like to change about the city?

Omkar Jadhav: The city needs to be more adaptive to people who come from outside. Ultimately people are moving from different regions to make Pune their home. But the city comes with a heavy baggage of language that can be demanding to outsiders. I have some content creator friends from places like Vidarbha and when they talk, people raise eyebrows.

Different parts of Maharashtra have different dialects. People can feel inferior when someone points out how they should speak. So the city needs to be more adaptive to different languages and cultures. We can also be more disciplined. I was in Mumbai for a few years for work and I observed that the speed of work there is better. We can inculcate the same here.

What solutions would you suggest for Pune’s problems?

Omkar Jadhav: We need to work on easier ways to commute. Carpooling should be encouraged, the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML )can be upgraded, and shared rickshaws can be used. It was known as the city of cycles and sometime back, under the smart city project, cycles were made available. That did not last, but even now we can have cycle stands in different places.

The government should work on providing parking spaces. This can ease congestion as people now just park anywhere they find some space on the road. If a new tower is under construction, maybe they can give permission for one extra floor and the government can provide it as a public parking space. They need not create a new space for parking but acquire smaller spaces from private property owners.