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indianexpress: It’s taken 32 years and many deliberations but the state government could never come to a conclusion about the merger of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transports, deemed a political hot potato. Now, its merger has been given the nod with Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh finally signing the merger recently, though the state government is yet to issue a notification in this regard.

The merger of the two utilities is also being viewed as the first step towards the much needed umbrella authority for Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad — the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority, which is also awaiting the final nod from the chief minister.

The state government will form a company for the two merged transport bodies under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. For the first six months the company will be run by an ad-hoc committee headed by the divisional commissioner. The municipal commissioners of PMC and PCMC and general managers of PMT and PCMT will also be a part of this committee.

“The committee will formalise the modalities of registering the company and work towards easing the process of the merger and work on other formalities of merging the two transport bodies,” a highly placed civic officer said. The nodal officer for this committee will be Pune’s municipal commissioner.

After six months the company will be headed by a chairman who will be a bureaucrat appointed by the state government — a major variation as there will be no politician heading the company. A 13-member committee of administrative authority (seven members) and experts (six members) will then run the company under the chairman.

Last year, the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s general bodies had given their respective approval for the merger of the two transport bodies with certain conditions. The condition laid by PMC was that the State Government will give one-time grant to pay off all existing liabilities. The State Government was also to give financial grant to the new entity to overcome losses even after the merger. The official said that all the conditions laid by PMC have been approved by the state government.

indianexpress: Admitting that the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have run into trouble, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Saturday that the 19th century Land Acquisition Act was faulty.

“Many feel that the Land Acquisition Act is inappropriate. We are looking into it for some common guidelines. But it won’t be legally binding on the states,” he said, while speaking at the convocation ceremony of the Bharati Vidyapeeth.

Reaffirming that it is upto the states to solve the issue of land acquisition, Ahluwalia said that the state needs to decide whether it will acquire land or ask private players to regulate.

Apart from SEZs, Ahluwalia also spoke about the need to increase the percentage of students going for higher education to 20 per cent from the current 10 per cent. “To enhance access to higher education, the thrust will be on public, private as well as foreign universities. The existing standard of education in the universities will also be upgraded,” he said.

The deputy chairman of the Planning Commission ensured that a detailed report based on the suggestions of the National Knowledge Commission will be finalised by September. He also spoke about the government’s plan of setting up 1,00,000 Community Information Service centres by the end of the year.

indianexpress:  The poor who were till now ignored in the development of the city have a reason to cheer. The coming annual budget of the Pune Municipal Corporation will allocate 40 per cent of Rs 1,400 crore to the poor. With 40 per cent of Pune’s population staying in slums, this means a proportionate allocation of funds.

Municipal Commissioner Nitin Kareer on Saturday announced the ‘special temporary budget’ of Rs 473 crore for the first four months of the year, in other words one-third of the total budget allocation for the entire year. The special budget was presented as the annual budget could not be sanctioned due to election code of conduct.

The special budget has been created with a view to complete the implementation of citizen’s suggestions taken by the PMC over the last one month. While the budget is for four months — April to July — Kareer said allocations required for developmental works in the coming financial year have also bee considered.

An allocation of Rs 74.93 crore has been made for ward works while Rs 229 crore has been set aside for capital and developmental works.

Citizen’s participation: A total of Rs 17.5 crore have been allocated for works suggested by citizens in 144 wards. The PMC had received 1,646 suggestions and for each ward the citizens could suggest works up to Rs 15 lakh. Similarly self help group women from 428 hamlets have suggested some 3,437 works. For each ward, the PMC had allocated Rs 5 lakh.