By: Harshad Oak
1st of Feb is poll day for the Pune civic elections. I have been going through manifestos, leaflets and other material provided by candidates in the Law College Ward Pune. However I am still very much a marginal voter.
Finally found an official list of candidates for the PMC elections. It’s strange that candidates now have just about 10 days to convince the electorate.
Pune Municipal Corporation elections last happened 5 years back, i.e in 2002. I have hardly any memory of that election, because I didn’t quite care back then.
Things have changed a lot in 5 years. I not only intend to vote but I also plan to first study the candidates contesting the election in 2007. I have repeatedly written about how Pune city is crumbling, primarily because of incompetent administration. So I guess now’s the chance for Pune citizens to have an impact on the future of Pune.
Some time back I wrote “PYC Sports Gymkhana Pune stops serving alcohol – Is the focus back on sports?”. The answer is no.
As per construction rules in cities, all buildings need a certain parking capacity to be approved by the corporation. Although even these standards seem inadequate to handle the traffic mess in Pune, builders have found a way to make it appear as if they are conforming to the law without doing anything of that sort. They just convert the parking potential of the public road into a private parking facility.
My letter published in the newspaper Sakal Herald dated 29th Sep 2006.
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“MSEB or whatever it is known as these days issues these expensive ads every week announcing that it will switch off power for several hours every Thursday for so called “maintenance activities”. Puneites also
seem to have accepted these Thursday cuts as a fact of life. No resistance either from the people or the people’s representatives.
A few days back I heard that the PYC Gymkhana located in the Deccan Gymkhana area in Pune has stopped serving alcohol. This came as a pleasant surprise and compeltely against recent trends in Indian cities.
Pune Youth Club (PYC) Hindu Gymkhana was formed in 1934 and for over 70 years has been a sports organization. PYC was once about cricket, badminton, table tennis and tennis.
Sometime back I blogged about the dispute about Paud Road – Senapati Bapat Link Road from the Pune Hills. The supporters of the road had declared victory following a decision from a lower court. However the matter is still very much open for debate.
