PMC’s rain check way behind schedule

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) ill-preparedness with regards to the pre-monsoon work has been exposed by Friday’s rain, where Puneites witnessed water-logging at several places. Though the civic administration had set a deadline of May 31; the road digging work is still underway at various locations in the city.
Apart from the pre-monsoon road work, tree trimmings have also not commenced at several places, as a result of which there is a danger of trees falling during heavy rains. Even on Friday, many tree-falling incidents had been reported in Kothrud and Senapati Bapat road. Civic activists have slammed the PMC for not starting pre-monsoon work early. Maj Gen (Retd) SCM Jatar of the Nagarik Chetana Manch said, “The PMC has not learned from its past experiences, or sometime we feel that they are deliberately starting the pre-monsoon work late. Though the monsoon starts in June, pre-monsoon showers can be experienced from the month of May itself, and before that they should have finished with the entire work.”
Various areas such as Sangamwadi, the Peth areas, Kothrud, Pashan area had witnessed water-logging. Now, even Congress corporator Avinash Bagwe has alleged that the contractors are not carrying out any pre-monsoon work, but pretending so that they get money from the PMC.
Bagwe said, “After Friday’s rain, areas in Bhavani Peth experienced water-logging, and therefore when I along with some PMC officials visited the place, we found that the contractor has only laid a dummy storm water pipeline instead of the actual line, due to which the water-logging is taking place. This is nothing but a scam. If these contractors have done the same scam in other parts of the city, the entire city will face this issue.”
When contacted, Pramod Nirbhavane head of PMC’s road department said, “We will look into the issue. The work is going in full-swing, and we will be able to finish the work by May-end.”