Cong,BJP combine embarrasses Govt

Cong,BJP combine embarrasses Govt
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

PUNE, NOV 22: Showing common concern, the ruling Congress party on Tuesday joined hands with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena to foil the State Government's move of detaching certain villages from the Pune Municipal Corporation.

After a marathon discussion for more than five hours, the general body meeting passed with majority a resolution requesting the State Government to retain all the 38 villages with the PMC. The resolution, however, was strongly opposed by Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the lone Congress corporator Anil Bhosale.

The resolution had created much excitement and sensation in the civic corridors and also in political circles because of the announcement by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who holds the portfolio of Urban Development Department, that the government would reconsider the merging decision because of a large number of complaints from the farmers and the villagers. The UDD subsequently sent a letter to the PMC, seeking its views on the entire issue. Congress Rajya Sabha member Suresh Kalmadi, however, came out in the open opposing the Chief Minister's move and maintained that 38 villages had to be retained with the PMC to ensure the balanced and planned development of Pune region.

While most of the Congress, BJP, Shiv Sena and RPI corporators supported the resolution, what surprised the House was the opposition from the lone Congress corporator Anil Bhosale. The Congress corporator has been organising the farmers from the merged villages to press the demand for detaching certain villages.

Describing a few political leaders as the ``new imperialists,'' Bhosale launched a scathing attack on his colleagues, saying that their stand would force the farmers to give up their lands, which was the only source of income for them.

Bhosale said it was wrong to assume that the detaching of villages would encourage illegal constructions since the State Government had already issued a resolution banning any construction within ten km of the PMC and the PCMC borders.

Senior Sena leader Ramesh Bodke said that the reconsideration proposal was floated to protect the interests of few political leaders. He, however, conceded that the development of merged villages was not taking place as per the expectations. Several corporators including Suhas Kulkarni, Hiraman Shinde, Mahadeo Babar, Sham Satpute and Prakash Mantri supported the resolution.

Rajlaxmi Bhosale of the NCP said that her party was opposing the resolution because farmers from the merged villages were living under a fear psychosis. She said the farmers had opposed the merging because no political party had bothered to take them into confidence while proposing reservations on their lands. The resolution was passed with a majority late in the night.