Neelam Gorhe says NCP should not have 'cornered' city chief.
In a surprising move, the Shiv Sena on Saturday supported beleaguered city president of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Vandana Chavan, who is being targeted by her party leaders for her stand on the proposed biodiversity park (BDP).
Shiv Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe in a hurriedly called press conference said that it was wrong on NCP's part to 'corner and deceive' Vandana.
She said that NCP has adopted double standards by supporting the cause of environment publicly for getting popularity and also by cornering party leader Vandana for her stand on BDP. She said that although Shiv Sena has political differences with Vandana, the party has respect for the stand taken by her on BDP.
She said that so many NCP corporators would not have rebelled against the city president without a signal from a senior party leader.
She said that NCP had taken an opportunistic stand on BDP. Party leader and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar was taking a stand to save the hills for the sake of publicity. However, at the same time, he was protecting vested interests of landowners. He should tell the chief minister that NCP opposes allowing construction in the proposed BDP.
She said that Shiv Sena wants to protect the hills and it has consistently opposed allowing construction on hills in the BDP. She said that if the state government allows construction in the BDP as declared by chief minister, then the party would launch a massive campaign against the decision.
Group leader of Shiv Sena in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Sham Deshpande, said both Congress and NCP are causing damage to the environment of the city. The PMC had sent a development plan (DP) of 23 merged villages in the civic body to the state government for approval in 2005. The proposal to develop BDP on 4,500 acres of the hills in the DP has snowballed into a major controversy.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had declared in the city on October 31 that the state government would soon approve the DP with a provision to allow construction on 4% of area in the BDP. After Chavan's declaration, Vandana Chavan had publicly opposed allowing construction in the BDP and had stated that it was the stand of the party and it was supported by Ajit Pawar.
Against this background, most of NCP corporators and office-bearers targeted Vandana in a meeting on Friday and ultimately, she had offered to resign from her post as city president in frustration.
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