PUNE: Eight new members have been appointed to the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) Standing Committee on Monday in which seven are women members. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress have nominated women members, the only male member, Bala Oswal, is from Shiv Sena.

Mayor Murlidhar Mohol announced this in the General Body meeting on Monday. With this appointment, the number of women in the 16-member committee has reached eight. The newly-appointed members include Varsha Tapkir, Manshi Deshpande, Ujjwala Jangale and Suneeta Galande from BJP, two NCP corporators Amruta Babar and Nanda Lonkar and one Congress corporator Lata Rajgure from Congress.

The members whose tenure is coming to an end this month are Yogesh Mulik, Umesh Gaikwad, Ranjana Tilekar, Dilip Vede and Laksmi Dudhane from BJP, Smita Kondhar from NCP, Vishal Dhanawade from Shiv Sena and Vaishali Marathe from Congress.

The Standing Committee is one of the most important decision-making bodies in the PMC.

MEMBERS’ TENURE
Every two years, the term of eight Standing Committee members ends and new members replace them. The BJP has 10 members out of a total 16 members while the NCP has four members and the Congress and Shiv Sena have one member each.