The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) may earn crores of rupees, but the Rs 1 lakh it earned in addition to its daily collection on Sunday was different. It was raised through the auction of a motley collection of items abandoned or forgotten by passengers in buses over the past three years.

It ranged from a scarf to mobile phones, pen-sets to DVD players and wallets to water-filters. “Over the last three years, we had collected a number of articles forgotten by passengers. They included things like wristwatches, purses, digital cameras, suitcases, DVD players, medical instruments, sarees, blankets and so on,” said Deepak Pardeshi, PMPML spokesperson.

He added that items left behind in buses are collected by the staff and deposited in the storeroom at Swargate bus stand. “A few people do contact us to claim their articles back within a month’s time, but most of them do not come at all and in that case we are compelled to put these up for auction. The intention is that things that belong to people should go back to them,” added Pardeshi.

On Sunday, the auction started at 10 am near PMPML workshop on Swargate and ended at 9 pm. While suitcases went for around Rs 2,000, DVD players fetched Rs 4,000 each. The total proceeds of Rs 1.03 lakh would be utilised for welfare of PMPML staff and reward children of PMPML workers for outstanding achievements, said Pardeshi.

PMPML had held a similar auction about three years ago which got them roughly the same amount. According to Pardeshi, many people purchase the belongings at the auction to give them to underprivileged and needy people. “Many prefer to donate them. Hence, it is also a platform for social service,” he said. However, Jugal Rathi of PMP Pravasi Manch said that citizens should have been informed about the auction in a more conspicuous manner, even though PMPML officials maintained that an advertisement giving details of the auction had been published in a few newspapers.

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