Pune: Thanks to the complaint filed by a civic activist, officers of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have finally woken up to the fact that a contractor was using for free the space and power provided for running an electric vehicle (e-vehicle) charging station inside the PMC premises while taking fees for charging the e-vehicles hired by the civic body.
PMC electricity department head Shrinivas Kandul said, “We had provided an electricity connection and space to the contractor upon the request of the vehicle department. It was expected that the vehicle department would deduct the electricity bill and rent from the contractor while paying his fees for charging e-vehicles. However, it was only due to the activist’s complaint that we found out that the contractor had been using for free the power and space.”
“We asked the vehicle department to recover the dues immediately. The vehicle department and electricity department jointly held a meeting with the contractor and asked him to pay the per annum charges immediately,” Kandul said.
Raising the issue, Congress worker Rushikesh Balgude said, “The officers were clueless about such a contract. They were paying the contractor’s fees for charging e-vehicles without recovering the electricity bills and rent. It was clearly mentioned in the documents that the PMC should get money for the electricity and space being used by the contractor. It is only after our follow-up that the PMC is now recovering its dues from the contractor. This e-vehicle charging facility is located inside the PMC headquarters. As the PMC had hired e-vehicles for its officers, a charging facility was needed within the premises.”