Pawar instructs handing over amenities in 23 merged villages to PMC

Almost six months after the state government approved a merger of 23 surrounding villages into Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday asked rural development ministry to hand over all departments to the urban development department

Almost six months after the state government approved a merger of 23 surrounding villages into Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday asked rural development ministry to hand over all departments to the urban development department.

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The state government on December 24 had issued a notification, officially paving the way for initiation of the merger process for the 23 villages. These villages are highly urbanised, although lacking in basic amenities like road, water supply and waste management.

Pawar on Tuesday held a review meeting at Mumbai to discuss various civic issues pertaining to Pune. Rural development minister Hasan Mushrif, minister Jitendra Avhad, minister of state for rural development Abdul Sattar, Prajakata Tanpure and city’s elected representatives were present for the meeting. Pune mayor Murlidhar Mohol remained absent for the meeting, but the mayor claimed that he did have an invite for the meeting.

“Ajit Pawar instructed our department to hand over all the amenities in these 23 villages to urban development ministry as part of merger of these areas into PMC,” said Sattar.

Pawar also hinted to merge 23 villages in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) before the municipal elections scheduled early next year. It is likely that the official order for merger of these villages into PMC limits will be issued within a month as the divisional commissionerate has already submitted its report comprising suggestions made by locals.

The rural development ministry has given a nod to hand over all its properties including schools and water schemes to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), which falls under urban development department.

These 23 villages are mainly dominated by NCP and party is hoping that it would help them to get power in the upcoming municipal election. However, city mayor Murlidhar Mohol was absent for the meeting citing he did not get proper information for it.

Mohol said, “This meeting was scheduled to discuss Pune city’s issues. I have been attending all the meetings, though I did not get the information for this meeting. It is wrong that the politics is getting done over issues related to Pune. Our stand is very clear that these villages should be merged step by step as it would add burden on the city’s infrastructure. If the state government wants to merge all the villages in a single phase, they should allot the funds for same and handover it to the municipal corporation.”

Along with the merged villages, the issue of handing over Maharashtra’s Jeevan Padikaran water project to PMC, which is meant for Uttamnagar, Shivane and Kondwe area.

Pawar instructed to handover the project to the PMC immediately.