Pune: Vikram Kumar to take charge as Pune Municipal Commissioner on Monday

Pune: Vikram Kumar the new Commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will take charge on Monday (July 13). Kumar has replaced Shekhar Gaikwad who has been transferred back as Sugar Commissioner in just 6 months.

Kumar was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA). Gaikwad, who was the Sugar Commissioner for the state, was brought in as Pune City Municipal Commissioner in January after the MahaVikas Aghadi government came into power in the state. Gaikwad got no time to settle in as the COVID-19 outbreak started in the city in March and the entire civic administration got engaged in the handling of this outbreak.

Gaikwad was inclined towards giving more relaxations to citizens from the strict lockdown which was implemented for almost two months from March last week up to May last week. Gaikwad had categorically maintained that the containment zones are just 3 per cent of the Pune city's total area and the entire city can't be sealed for these areas. Some ministers in the state government were not comfortable with Gaikwad's views. Gaikwad had even opposed the re-imposing of lockdown from July 13, during the review meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Gaikwad was firm on his decision that lockdown is not a solution to the COVID-19 crisis and that the number of cases was seen as rising because the number of tests conducted every day had been increased. Gaikwad was transferred immediately a day after the meeting. This decision was criticized by Member of Parliament Girish Bapat as a politically motivated decision.

Kunal Kumar, the former Pune Municipal Commissioner and presently a member of a special monitoring team of the central government, had earlier said that suggestions about transferring 'some officers' were received as they had 'failed to control' the COVID-19 situation in the city. Speculations about Deputy Commissioner Rajendra Muthe and another officer were doing the rounds, but he has been recently promoted as Additional Collector. Sources from the state government now say that no more officers will be transferred in the immediate future.