‘There has just been no real development in the past three years’

Shrirang Chavan was at the forefront of the move to have his village merged with the PMC in 2017. Three years since the merger, he tells Siddharth Gadkari that there is no money for development.

Why did you want to merge with the PMC?

Shrirang Chavan, president, Haveli Taluka Nagari Kruti Samiti (HT)

We had approached the court and filed a public litigation to include 34 fringe villages in PMC limits. After that, the state government had filed an affidavit in the Bombay high court that state will merge villages, step by step. In 2017, the state merged 11 villages in PMC limits. The reason was gram panchayats are not capable of providing basic facilities to the increasing population in villages. These villages are fully urbanised and the gram panchayats are helpless when it comes to development.

What kind of facilities have you got from the PMC in the last three years?

We were happy when we were included in the PMC. We thought, now we will get basic facilities. However, there is no substantial development in the last three years. We got two representatives for a huge 81 square km area. The water problem remains the same. There is little improvement with the roads.

What are the reasons for the slow development?

These villages haven’t got adequate representation in the PMC. At present, there are only two corporators who are representing the area. They have not got enough money for development. The corporation estimated Rs 2000 crore for development of these villages. However, the PMC has allocated less than Rs 100 crore in the last three years