Agarwal shields gloomy PMT

Incidentally, even as the standing committee gave the go-ahead to the administration’s proposal of acquiring the commercial complex at the PMT’s Hadapsar depot to recover its Rs three crore, Agarwal expressed surprise that the docket that had been prepared during former municipal commissioner Ramanath Jha’s tenure had suddenly come up for consideration after a year.

While Agarwal did not satisfactorily answer queries as to why the docket had been forwarded, he however stood by the administrative decision.

It may be recalled that the elected members of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had protested time and again towards extending financial aid to the PMT which had never returned the amount. They had protested against giving Rs three crore to the PMT for paying salary arrears to its employees at the cost of affecting the development works.

However, reacting to the standing committee’s decision of acquiring the comppex of the Hadapsar depot general manager Prithviraj Bayas (who was also present at the commissioner’s office) said that he was not aware of the resolution, but would examine the legality of the docket.

Bayas took the opportunity to clear the misconception that the grants extended by the PMC was a loan or offering financial aid by pointing out that as per Section 95 A of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act – municipal transport – along with water, electricity and sanitation were among the services that were to be subsidised.