This is an archive article published on September 26, 2020
After month-long battle with Covid, Pimpri-Chinchwad corporator succumbs to infection
Laxman Unde, who served in the Army for 20 years, is the third PCMC corporator to die of Covid-19 in the last three months. Unde is credited with setting up the Sainik Bhavan in Dighi for former defence personnel.
After a month-long battle, Laxman Unde, a first-time BJP corporator in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), succumbed to coronavirus disease at the Aditya Birla Hospital on Saturday. He was 56 and is survived by his mother, wife and two children.
Unde, who served in the Army for 20 years, is credited with setting up the Sainik Bhavan in Dighi for former defence personnel.
A hospital spokesperson said Unde was also suffering from hypertension and died of multi-organ failure. “The cause of death is acute hypoximic respiratory failure. He had suffered acute kidney injury and was on dialysis. He had developed fungal sepsis and had Covid-19 pneumonitis,” said the spokesperson.
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The spokesperson added, “The corporator was admitted to our hospital on August 27. The day he was admitted, his oxygen saturation had dipped. Three days later, he was shifted to the intensive care unit where he was put on ventilator support. All recommended treatment and support was given…”.
Unde was elected to the PCMC in the 2017 civic elections from Dighi-Bopkhel area with a margin of over 6,000 votes. “He had joined BJP on the eve of the civic elections and yet won with a considerable margin. It reflected his popularity in the area,” said BJP corporator Seema Savale.
Dighi corporator Vilas Dolas said in his short political career of three-and-a-half years as corporator, Unde had endeared himself to the masses. “He was a man known for initiatives. He worked both for local residents of his area and ex-servicemen. It was through his efforts that the first-of-its-kind Sainik Bhavan for the welfare of ex-servicemen was set up in Dighi,” said Dolas.
He said Unde brought in Army discipline in the way he worked as a corporator. “Whatever he did, he believed in doing it on time. He hated if projects got delayed or people or officials did not arrive on time. His style of functioning was so different than that of other politicians. It was like a breath of fresh air as politicians are known to turn up late or not push hard for implementing development projects,” said the corporator.
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Dolas said the day he was hospitalised, Unde had told him on a video call, “What is there to fear about coronavirus…I will soon be back on my feet.”
BJP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad unit president Mahesh Landge said he had lost a “family member” and a corporator who infused discipline and values on the political pitch. “In every decision I took, Laxman Unde had a say. I always sought his advice whenever I wanted to take any major decision and his advice was never wrong,” Landge said, adding that Unde’s death was a major personal loss for him and his family.
Unde is the third corporator of the PCMC to die of Covid-19 in the last three months. Datta Sane and Javed Shaikh, both NCP leaders, succumbed to the infection earlier.
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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