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Vacate dilapidated wadas, buildings: Pune municipal corporation tells inmates
Civic body has identified 275 dangerous structures, which need to be vacated before monsoon starts
The Pune Municipal Corporation has appealed to the dilapidated wada owners and tenants to vacate the premises before monsoon to avoid untoward incident. The civic body has also issued notices to the inmates of the wada, in this regard, with the help of police.
“Every year before the onset of the monsoon, PMC conducts a survey on dangerous structures, mainly old buildings in the city. PMC has identified 275 structures and has issued notices to them,” said Rajendra Raut, head, building permission department, PMC.
Raut said that PMC has given intimation to 175 structures which are in a very bad state. “In many wadas, people are not leaving as they are worried that if they vacate the place, they might lose the right on the land. We are assuring them that such a situation won’t arise as the civic body maintains a record and even citizens have a property tax receipt.”
PMC has issued public notices and has appealed to the citizens to conduct survey of buildings and carry out necessary repair work, before the onset of the monsoon.
Raut said that earlier PMC was only concentrating on the age-old buildings in the peth areas, but since building collapse incidences have been reported from city outskirts as well, PMC staff have been instructed to issue intimation to properties which might collapse.
According to official records, PMC has demolished 125 old buildings in the last one year.
Dy Mayor appeals to civic admin to begin drain cleaning work to prepare for monsoons
Deputy mayor Siddharth Dhende has appealed to the Pune municipal administration to start drain cleaning work in the city immediately.
Dhende said, “Usually, monsoon arrives in the first week of June in Maharashtra. As the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections is in place, the municipal administration has not floated tenders for the drain cleaning work. If the administration waits till the last moment to clean the drains, it will create problems for citizens in the monsoon.”
He said that the civic administration is empowered to undertake maintenance works despite the model code of conduct being in place, but the administration’s nature is to delay work citing the model code of conduct.
“I spoke to the municipal commissioner Saurabh Rao about the issue and he has accepted in principle to float the tenders very soon,” Dhende said.
He said that if the drain cleaning work did not take place in May, there are chances of water logging in many parts of the city during the first few spells of rain.
“The administration has floated tenders for constructing the central kitchen facility for Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) schools, hence, it can also float tenders for the maintenance work in the interest of the residents, notwithstanding the model code of conduct,” he added.
Meanwhile, the drainage line got choked near Yerawada on Sunday morning. The drainage water started flooding the busy Ahmednagar road near Gunjan Talkies chowk. The administration took considerable efforts to clean the drainage near Gunjan chowk and was able to stop the flooding.