PMPML traffic manager suspended; fourth senior official to face action

Gawli is the fourth senior staffer to be suspended from the transport body this year. (Express/Files/Representational)

Sunil Gawli, traffic manager of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML), was suspended on Thursday over his alleged absenteeism. PMPML CMD Tukaram Mundhe suspended Gawli for “remaining absent from services from December 6” without informing his seniors. However, some PMPML officials contradicted the CMD’s claim, and said Gawli was unwell and had even submitted an application for sick leave.

Gawli is the fourth senior staffer to be suspended from the transport body this year. In November, Mundhe had dismissed former chief engineer Sunil Burse for allegedly failing to meet targets pertaining to the maintenance of buses owned by the PMPML.

Burse, who had served as the chief engineer of the public transport utility since 2007, was suspended in July over the same reason. Earlier this month, maintenance engineer Sheshnarayan Khedkar of Bhosari depot was dismissed from service for alleged negligence and “remaining absent from duty without proper intimation”.

In July 2017, Anant Waghmare, a quality control engineer with the transport body, was suspended for about a month for alleged dereliction of duty after it was found that the spare parts ordered under his watch were of poor quality.

PMPML officials said Gawli’s suspension order mentioned that he had been “irresponsible by being absent without proper intimation when he was handling one of the most important responsibilities in the transport body”.  “He has not reported for work since December 6. He has not given proper notice. His absence is taking a toll on the operations of the transport body, and hence he has been suspended…,” said an official of the transport body.

Gawli had joined PMPML in 1986 and became the traffic manager in 2005. General Manager (operations) Ashok Jadhav has been given additional charge as traffic manager, said the official.