Ex-BJP corporator challenges party’s road widening decision

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to “wait and watch” after the Bombay high court directed the state government to determine former Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) corporator Ujjwal Keskar’s application within 10 weeks

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to “wait and watch” after the Bombay high court directed the state government to determine former Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) corporator Ujjwal Keskar’s application within 10 weeks. Keskar has demanded that the PMC’s decision on the proposed widening of city roads from the existing six metre to nine metre be disposed of, which is interesting given that road widening is on the BJP’s own ambitious agenda.

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PMC legal advisor, advocate Nisha Chavan, said, “The Bombay high court has given directives to the state government to conduct hearing and take a decision on Keskar’s application within 10 weeks.”

While the PMC completed the suggestions and objections process, it was delayed due to the pandemic. Meanwhile, former BJP corporator and office bearer Keskar took objection to the proposed road widening and approached urban development minister Eknath Shinde and urban development department officials claiming that the PMC’s decision is against the law and should be disposed of. Neither Shinde nor the department officials paid any heed apart from the fact that BJP MLA Chandrakant Patil and standing committee chairman Hemant Rasne were very aggressive about implementing the road widening decision. The party suffered a major setback however when Keskar subsequently filed a public interest litigation (PIL) against the state government in the Bombay high court.

Keskar said, “The PMC decision proposing the widening of city roads from six to nine metre is unlawful and not useful for common people. It has been taken for developers and builders. So, I have demanded that the corporation’s decision be nullified. We first approached urban development minister Shinde and the urban development department but they did not consider the application. Finally, we filed a PIL against the state government. The court conducted the hearing last week and has issued an order to the state government.”

Sudhar Kadam, executive engineer of the building permission and development department, said, “Due to the second wave of Covid-19, there were strict restrictions on meetings and people too were reluctant to visit the PMC office for hearing. So, we stopped hearing for some time. After easing of restrictions, we conducted the remaining hearing and completed it last month. Now, after the Bombay high court order, we will take legal opinion and prepare a final report which will be presented to the standing committee.”

The PMC had appealed to citizens living in those areas where road widening was proposed to register their suggestions and objections. The PMC had proposed that a total 335 roads – 255 in the old city and 80 in the suburban areas – be widened. The civic body received both positive and negative responses from about 1,800 citizens. While a majority of the bungalow societies objected to the road widening, the PMC found that there were nearly no objections with respect to the widening of around 135 roads.