Pune's citizens, police come together to ease traffic woes

Civic activists, traffic police and citizens on Wednesday came together to discuss Pune’s traffic woes at a symposium organised at the Police Headquarters in Shivajinagar.

However, the representatives of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) failed to turn up and the participants of the symposium turned the heat on the civic body.

The symposium was organised on ‘Pune’s traffic problems’ by Public Concern for Governance Trust (PCGT). Member of PCGT, Satish Khot, said, “We had invited PMC traffic planner Shrinivas Bonala to represent the civic body. However, at the last moment he told us that he cannot attend the symposium.”

However, denying Khot’s claims, Bonala said, “I did not cancel at the last moment. In fact, I had told the organisers well in advance that I would not be able to attend the event since the general body meeting was scheduled at the PMC.”

Addressing the symposium, deputy commissioner of police (Traffic), Vishwas Pandhare,  said, “There should be more coordination between police, municipal administration, cantonment boards and NGOs, but that coordination is lacking.” Inamdar said that the PMC should have a dedicated department for non-motorised transport.