Even as the standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) gave a go ahead for a free ride in Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) buses for the students between standard V and X between their residences and schools from Wednesday,PMPML administration on Tuesday sought more timeframe to roll out this plan. However,Maharasthtra Navnirman Sena has threatened to carry out protests if students are charged for tickets. Standing committee members of MNS put pressure on other members and civic administration to implement the plan of providing free service to school students from immediate effect starting from Wednesday. After MNS,other parties including BJP,Shiv Sena and Congress to supported this demand. Buckling down the pressure,the standing committee finally gave approval to implement the scheme from Wednesday. However,chief executive officer T S Dharurkar,who attended the meeting,said that the proposal could not come into effect immediately and needs at a fortnight to do so. Standing committee chairman Nilesh Nikam said,"We have decided to hand over Rs 9 crore to PMPML to roll out the free pass scheme to school students. We also gave a nod to implement the scheme from Wednesday. However,since it is the prerogative of the PMPML administration,the board of directors of PMPML would take the decision." Following a heated discussion,it was also decided that a committee of corporators including Ravindra Vagaskar,Vijay Deshmukh,Mangala Mantri,Ashok Yenpure and Sunil Bibwe was formed to study the nitty-gritty of the plan. "This committee will study the number of students who would avail of this scheme and other things and the proposal would be prepared by holding discussion with the PMPML officials," Nikam said. Vagaskar said,"On Tuesday we will adopt a wait and watch policy to check whether the free pass scheme comes into effect. If students are still charged,we would start stopping buses and hold protests." The committee members also discussed the issue pertaining to PMPML's dues that was lying with PMC in the form of printing the bus tickets (Rs 15 crore),octroi (Rs 6 crore),which could be utilised for bringing the plan into reality.
