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This is an archive article published on October 4, 2015

‘Hurt’, top PMPML official ‘missing’ for four months, peers have no clue

Rajendra Madane, general manager of PMPML who handled the entire traffic operations involving 1,500 buses, went on medical leave four months ago.

A top official of the PMPML has not reported to work for past four months, apparently due to lack of team spirit in the city’s transport undertaking. What is surprising is the fact that PMPML bosses seemed to have made no effort to find out the reasons behind his not reporting to work all these days.

Rajendra Madane, general manager of PMPML who handled the entire traffic operations involving 1,500 buses, went on medical leave four months ago. He had apparently suffered a fracture to his right hand after slipping at home. Madane had taken over as general manager just after Shrikar Pardeshi, who had taken a slew of measures to improve the cash-strapped PMPML’s fortunes, was transferred to the Prime Minister’s Office. Not letting the momentum slip, Madane too had initiated a number of efforts to bring as many as buses on roads. He was the first official to take the step to woo two-wheelers riders, especially youngsters, to travel by PMPML buses by offering to open pass centres right in the colleges.

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When contacted, PMPML chairman and managing director Abhishek Krishna said Madane was on medical leave. Asked as to whether anybody from PMPML had tried to find out the reasons for his long leave, Krishna said, “He has given medical leave as the reason…”

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Joint managing director Pravin Ashtikar said he too did not know the reason for Madane’s long leave. “I am also clueless after he went on leave citing medical reasons,” he said.

Madane refused to comment except for saying that he was “hurt.” Madane has apparently recovered from his fracture and is now suffering from neck pain. Sources close to him said he was in his native place Baramati where he has taken to farming.

PMPML officials close to Madane said he disapproved of the lack of “team spirit” in the working of the transport undertaking which was adversely affecting any effort to bring it out of the mess that it finds itself in.

Madane was also reportedly against the idea of constantly borrowing money from civic bodies rather any making tangible efforts to improve the finances of the transport undertaking. Asked whether he would return to PMPML or go back to state services, Madane said he was keen to rejoin PMPML but currently was not in proper frame of mind to do so.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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