Pune: “Transfer is part and parcel of my job and I have accepted it. Taking over as Nashik Municipal Commissioner will be a new challenge for me,” said outgoing CMD of Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal (PMPML) Tukaram Mundhe on his last day of duty here on Thursday.
He also claimed, “I focused on the institutional changes to sustain PMPML as an independent company and I hope new CMD will carry forward the same for the betterment of PMPML.”
The State government has transferred Mundhe as Municipal Commissioner to Nashik. While interacting with media, Mundhe avoided to comment on any political parties, he said, “I am happy what I did as a CMD of PMPML. I was focused on improving the system and tried to give better service to the public. However, a few of my decisions did not go down well with many, though the decisions were taken within the framework of the law. Use of modern technology, rearrangement of bus routes, skilled manpower management, improvement of basic infrastructure helped in reducing the PMPML losses up to Rs 85 crore till date. It will further go down to Rs 100 crore.”
He further said, “PMPML is an independent company and it is not part of the Pune Municipal Corporation. Hence, I tried my best to improve the system. I made a framework for service rules for the employees which happened for the first time here. Thus, even if the number of buses increases, there will be no need to appoint a new employee to share the workload. Currently, there are 11,000 employees and this is an adequate number to run PMPML buses comfortably,”he added.
He further said, “I haven’t taken any decision against any particular section of commuters. In fact, my decisions were commuter-centric. I took the decision to reduce concession of senior citizens from 70 per cent to 50 per cent which was my rational decision but it did not go down well with some section of people. During my tenure, I always gave preference to PMPML and not to any individual or non-governmental organisations (NGOs) interests.”
“I took suggestions from people and civic activists. I selected the suggestions which were practical and helpful to improve the system. But some people did not like my decision. I received seven letters from a single person and the language used was so abusive that my family was disturbed by it,” he added.
