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Rajnath Singh to hold meeting on cantonment merger with PMC
The development comes on the back of PCB MLA Sunil Kamble’s meeting with Singh during the latter’s Pune visit on Monday wherein Kamble briefed the union minister about the pending merger
A meeting with union defence minister Rajnath Singh regarding the merger of Khadki and Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is on the cards. The development comes on the back of PCB MLA Sunil Kamble’s meeting with Singh during the latter’s Pune visit on Monday wherein Kamble briefed the union minister about the pending merger. A positive outcome is expected from the meeting which is scheduled to take place within 15 days.
Kamble said, “I met the defence minister during his visit to the city on Monday and a memorandum detailing the merger of the cantonments with the civic body was handed over to him. He has promised to hold a meeting in the next 15 days and invite me to Delhi for further deliberations on the issue.”
In addition to elected representatives from Pune, the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Khadki and PCB, and the PMC commissioner will be present at the meeting. Cantonment residents have been eagerly awaiting the ministry’s decision on the issue.
Youth leader Amit More said, “On one hand, the cantonment residents are suffering due to the lack of funds from the Centre since 2017 while on the other, the lethargy over the merger issue is taking a heavy toll on area residents. The cantonment residents cannot be made to suffer due to indecision on the part of the central government.”
The urban development department (UDD) has sent four reminders to the PMC but the latter is still to reply to the UDD on the merger of the Pune cantonment’s civilian areas with the PMC. What’s more, it’s been more than a month since the fourth reminder was sent to the PMC, seeking an urgent reply along with a detailed report.
In fact, the last letter marked ‘urgent and important’ was sent on March 27 by the secretary of the UDD, Sushila Pawar, to the Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad and Nagpur municipal corporations, seeking their reports on the merger of the respective cantonment boards. None of the municipal corporations have sent any reply to the state government till date.
A UDD official visited the PMC headquarters on April 12 and spent nearly four hours visiting various PMC departments seeking details on the communications sent to the PMC. Later, the PMC officials, realising the urgency of the matter, prepared a draft related to the merger and submitted it to the office of the municipal commissioner for his signature.
Social worker Rajabhau Chavan lambasted the PMC and the Centre for delaying the merger process. “Currently, the roads are out of order, the hawker menace is at its peak, the Pune cantonment water bill has been pending since a long time, and a host of infrastructure projects are in limbo. The cantonment residents are being made to suffer while the administrative salaries are being paid on time. This selective treatment must end and citizens must get their dues as they are paying taxes regularly. It is high time that a final decision is taken on the merger of the cantonment with the PMC,” Chavan said.
