In a move to corner chief minister Prithviraj Chavan over the unauthorised constructions issue, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s men are in action: Four MLAs, all Ajit Pawar supporters including three from Pimpri-Chinchwad areas and 40 Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporators from Pimpri-Chinchwad have resigned over the demand for regularisation of unauthorised constructions.
Interestingly, the resignations have been tendered on the eve of the ‘maha-morcha’ organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena, Republican Party of India (RPI) and Nagri Hakka Suraksha Samiti to raise this issue in the state assembly in Nagpur.
The morcha is aimed at demanding regularisation of illegal constructions in Pradhikaran, Pimpri-Chinchwad New Town Development Authority area and the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) areas.
The winter session of the assembly witnessed high drama over the resignations of the MLAs from Pimpri-Chinchwad, including Laxman Jagtap, Anna Bansode and Vilas Lande along with NCP MLA from Vadagaon-Sheri in Pune, Bapu Pathare.
The MLAs handed over their resignations to the office of the legislative assembly speaker Dilip Walse-Patil at 3 pm.
The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) corporators, in a group of 40, submitted their resignations to city mayor Mohini Lande. They did not submit copies of the resignations to municipal commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi.
MLAs Jagtap and Lande are affiliated to NCP, while Bansode is NCP MLA. All the three and Pathare are loyalists and strong supporters of Pawar.
After the building collapse incidents and criticism in the media over the same, a demolition drive was launched.
The drive against unauthorised constructions was carried out by the Pune district administration as well as Pardeshi.
Jagtap informed media persons that he has been raising this issue for more than one year and Chavan had held a meeting in this regard. He said the committee appointed by the state government on unauthorised constructions has submitted its report, but the chief minister is not taking any action on the report. Jagtap said that if despite being an elected representative he was not in a position to take the issue to its logical conclusion, then there was no point in being a member of the House.
Navnath Jagtap, the standing committee chairman in PCMC, informed media persons that he along with 40 NCP corporators have decided to resign to press the demand of regularising unauthorised constructions.
Kshatriya panel report yet to be acted upon
The government appointed a three-member committee headed by additional chief secretary (revenue) Swadheen Kshatriya last year in September. The Kshatriya committee submitted its report in the stipulated time and yett no action has taken place.
The committee was appointed to look into the issue of sprawling unauthorised constructions in big cities like Pune, Thane, Mumbai, Nashik, Aurangabad and Nagpur.
There are lakhs of such constructions and the committee’s recommendations (which are not out yet officially) would require changes in rules for a number of departments including urban development, rural development, revenue and others.
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