Tried best to complete key projects in 2 years: Pune civic chief

Municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar, who completed two years as Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) administrator on Thursday, said his priority in the past 24 months was to complete various important projects.

“During the last two years, I have tried to compete most of the big projects in the city, including 24x7 equitable water supply scheme and sewage management project with the help from Japan International Cooperation Agency which is known as river rejuvenation and riverfront development project,” Kumar said.

The municipal administration under the commissioner was in charge of civic affairs after the tenure of corporators ended on March 14, 2022. Kumar accepted that with no elected representatives, some of the major policy decisions could not be taken.

“There were challenges, but despite the absence of elected members, the administration worked hard to serve citizens. It is true that in the absence of elected members, we were unable to take policy decisions but tried to finish many long-pending projects,” he said.

“PMC without the general body and the standing committee meetings has its pros and cons. The benefit was that decision-making process was speedy, but drawback was that during the general body meeting, all the aspects of any topic were not coming to the fore. As the administration, we considered all the aspects on most topics,” Kumar said.

According to Kumar, there were challenges in carrying out some projects due to limited funds.

“With less revenue, I tried to keep a control on spending. We have a revenue committee that helped to keep a check on spending,” he said.

The commissioner accepted that in the absence of elected members, administration was flooded with various civic complaints. Earlier, citizens used to file complaints with the elected members who then directed it to respective departments.

There are 15 to 20 mega projects currently underway in the city due to which many roads are facing traffic congestion and other hurdles.

Meanwhile, many citizens have said that the administration has been inefficient in the past two years.

Civic activist Vivek Velankar said, “The civic chief has failed to deliver. He was not available for common citizens, nor answerable for any work.”

Congress MLA Ravindra Dhangekar on Thursday staged an agitation in front of the commissioner’s official residence over the administration’s failure to deliver justice to citizens.