Maharashtra: Multiple orders causing confusion among local residents, say activists
"Pune is witnessing confusion because of multiple orders by different authorities like civic chiefs, police chiefs, the district collector and police stations," said Prashant Inamdar of Pedestrians First.
On Twitter, Inamdar has complained about the issue to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. (Representational)
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“Conflicting” directives issued by multiple authorites in Pune district, Pune city and Pimpri-Chinchwad, in connection with the COVID-19 situation, have drawn criticism from civic activists.
“Pune is witnessing confusion because of multiple orders by different authorities like civic chiefs, police chiefs, the district collector and police stations. This has not only caused confusion but has made local residents suffer, especially in difficult times,” said Prashant Inamdar of Pedestrians First.
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On Twitter, Inamdar has complained about the issue to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Urging the chief minister to appoint one nodal officer for the district, Inamdar said, “It seems the district collector is not the sole authority despite the Disaster Management Act being in place… Both PMC and PCMC chiefs are issuing separate orders. And both Pune police chief and Pimpri-Chinchwad chiefs are issuing their own separate orders”.
Inamdar said on Sunday, the Pimpri-Chichwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) issued an amended order allowing non-essential shops to open around 8 pm, while Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and police orders on the same were not available till late in the evening.
Manav Kamble, president of Nagar Haqq Suraksha Samiti, has also complained about the “poor coordination between civic and police authorities” to Thackeray. “I don’t think there is effective coordination between civic officials and the police. Civic officials are issuing one order and hours later, police are issuing another one,” he said.
“Last week’s PCMC order said vegetable markets will be permitted to function between 10 am and 4 pm. But across the city, police are asking vendors to wind up by 1 pm. This is just one of the examples,” he said.
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When approached for comment, Pune Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said, “I agree with the view that there should be one order issued by one authority to avoid any kind of confusion among residents. We have received a few complaints that sometimes police are not following the exact orders that have been issued,” he said.
PCMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Santosh Patil said, “Some days ago, we have also received complaints from local residents that we had issued orders but those were not followed properly…”.
District Collector Naval Kishore Ram denied that there was any confusion over the directives. “The collectorate issues the orders, which is applicable to the entire district. The PMC and and PCMC chiefs issued orders depending on their situations vis-a-vis the containment and non-containment zones. Therefore, I don’t think there is any confusion or lack of coordiantion between different authorities in Pune”.
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
