Pune mayor Murlidhar Mohol for more ease, politicos join chorus

PUNE: City mayor Murlidhar Mohol and BJP have approached the state government with a demand that the PMC and PCMC areas and the rural belt of the district be considered as separate administrative units and more relaxations provided in the two municipal areas.
Leaders of all political parties said the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic limits should also get the benefit of increased relaxations offered by the state government.Pune was not among the 25 districts, for which the state government on Monday announced further ease of the Covid curbs.
Mayor Mohol said his party, the BJP, has approached the MVA government to meet the demands of the people of Pune city and Pimpri Chinchwad. “The citizens of Pune city and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) areas have done their best to control the spread of the virus. Mumbai is getting more relaxations. Then why not Pune?” he said.
Mohol said the delay in introducing relaxations in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits was causing problems to people across the strata of society. “They are suffering economically. Further relaxations should be introduced at the earliest,” he said.
NCP city unit chief Prashant Jagtap said, “The (weekly) positivity rate in Pune city and Pimpri Chinchwad has remained below 5% for almost a month. The government should consider this and provide more relief for the citizens. It should also ensure extension in business timings.”
Prashant Girbane, director-general of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture (MCCIA), said, “It is high time that we further opened up Pune’s economy. The worst affected are the contact-based services and employees in the informal sector. The manufacturing sector is stuck at sub-par levels and awaiting the aggregate demand to pick up for the rise in production and employee deployment.”
Fatehchand Ranka, president of the Federation of Traders Association Pune (FTAP), said, “We want the timings to be changed to 11am-8pm on weekdays or from 11am to 7pm on all seven days of the week to allow some recovery of business, especially with the festive season coming up.”
Sachin Nivangune, president of the Pune District Retailers’ Association, said, “We have written a letter to the civic authorities and they have pledged to extend the shop timings in the next two-three days.”
Ganesh Shetty, president of the Pune Hoteliers and Restaurants Association, said, “Our members will participate in the demonstration. Since most shops used to close at 9pm (before the pandemic), the 7pm deadline demand works for them in the current situation. But we want the restaurant timings to be extended to 10.30pm, so that we can open for dine-in services.”
(With inputs from Neha Madaan, Shiladitya Pandit, Sandip Dighe & Anjali Jhangiani)