PUNE:
Vikram Kumar,
new municipal commissioner
, took charge on Sunday after Shekhar Gaikwad was moved out on Saturday in a sudden development two days before Pune goes into a 10-day
lockdown
.
Kumar was the metropolitan commissioner of Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority.
Kumar finds himself in the hotseat considering the surge in
Covid-19 cases
, especially over the last week, with 800 to 1,000 fresh cases reported every day and almost 100 patients succumbing to the contagion during this period in the Pune Metropolitan Region.
He is also up against brewing resentment among the trade and business community and a huge section of citizens against the next lockdown.
While an air of expectancy prevailed in the
Pune Municipal Corporation
corridors around the time Kumar walked in to take charge of his new office, the senior officer himself was not eager to make any immediate comment on the challenges ahead.
“I have taken charge just now. I would prefer to have a discussion with our officers before I make any statement,” he said, while going to a meeting room.
Meanwhile, Gaikwad told TOI, the PMC’s order regarding the implementation of the lockdown in Pune city has been finalized, but he did not sign it as he was going through the relieving procedure. Apparently, the new civic chief was expected to take a final call on the order late Sunday night “It was a very responsible and historical posting for me. I tried to take appropriate actions and decisions to curb the nCoV spread,” Gaikwad said.
He was the sugar commissioner before taking charge at PMC in January 2020 and will go back to his former posting.
During his seven-month tenure, Gaikwad carried out a number of initiatives to curtail the spread of the virus.
Projects to improve civic health facilities, including the augmentation of Naidu Hospital, were taken up during his tenure. The death rate of nCoV positive patients was brought down below 3% from over 4% in four months.
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