Opposition corporators flay ruling combine and civic administration during the first general body meeting of PMC.
The first general body (GB) meeting of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), on Monday, witnessed uproarious scenes, with opposition corporators taking both the ruling coalition of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress and the civic administration to task regarding the water cuts facing the city. In response, the municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak, said that stringent measures have to be taken to ensure proper distribution of water in the city.
The trouble started immediately after the election of members of various committees of the civic body, with the party leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Ashok Yenpure, moving an adjournment motion to draw attention of the ruling coalition and the administration towards the water cuts issue in the city.
Sensing that the ruling coalition was not in a mood to listen to their proposal, BJP- Shiv Sena corporators stormed the well of the house and were joined by corporators of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). They continued to agitate for more than 15 minutes in the well of the house against the water cuts, which they termed as artificial and man made.
Post the agitation, the corporators returned to their seats, to debate about the water crisis. Leading the debate, Yenpure ridiculed the ruling coalition for not doing enough to ensure equitable water distribution in the city. “If the tankers can have water to sell, then why is the civic administration not able to supply water to the pipes in the city,’’ he asked.
A MNS corporator from Kothrud said that the number of tankers to supply water was not adequate and the civic administration has not done enough to supply water to various parts of the city.
Responding to the charges, senior corporators from the ruling coalition said the civic administration is not doing enough to plug the leakages in distribution.
Corporators, cutting across party lines, demanded that the mayor should convey a special meeting of party leaders to discuss water cuts in the city.
In his reply, the municipal commissioner pointed out that the PMC has been drawing around 14 TMC of water from the irrigation department while the original agreement was for 10 TMC.
Making a strong case for metered water supply, Pathak said that without it, it would be difficult to ensure equitable water distribution. He also urged that corporators should be ready to take tough decisions for the city’s future
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