Pune: The General Body meeting of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), on Tuesday, saw opposition parties threatening to stall the Metro work at Paud Road if the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and State government failed to start work on proposed Shivshrushti project within three months. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the city did not attend the meeting and, therefore, the BJP wanted to adjourn the meeting.
However, opposition parties were adamant and discussed the issues.
"The proposed Shivshrusti was planned on 28 acres of land in Kothrud, which was reserved for the cultural purpose under the Development Plan (DP). However, till date, no work has been carried out at the spot.
Meanwhile, the same plot got reserved for the Metro station and, thus, the State is purposely delaying its work," alleged the opposition parties.
Since there was no clarity on whether both the projects will be accommodated on the same plot or one project will be sidelined or whether the Metro rail station will be constructed underground paving way for Shivshrushti, the PMC had decided to hold a special GB meeting in July. However, since then, every time the project was taken up for the discussion, the meeting would get adjourned. But on Tuesday, opposition parties were not allowing BJP to adjourn the GB meeting.
Senior NCP corporator Deepak Mankar, who has been involved in the project since the beginning, said, "It seems that the government is not willing to act on the issue. They are purposely delaying the project. Chief Minister had promised to conduct a meeting on Shivshrushti during his visit to PMC. He has visited the city several times since then but never found time to conduct the meeting. If nothing is done for setting up Shivshrushti in next three months, we will not allow the work of Pune Metro Project on Paud Road."
According to the PMC, the decision about setting up Shivshrushti in Kothrud was already taken some years ago and the proposal was forwarded to the State government in 2009 for seeking its approval but since then, the project has been pending with the government.
The leader of Opposition Chetan Tupe said, "The BJP government has used the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in its electoral campaign, but after coming to power, they have forgotten their poll promises. It seems that BJP is not willing to do anything on this subject till 2019 election. Therefore, they are delaying the project purposely."
Shiv Sena corporator Sanjay Bhosale said, "The ruling party is not serious on the issue, therefore, they are not doing anything on the issue. But we will not allow the government to do so. We will hit the streets along with other opposition parties if the government does not do anything on the proposed project."
Congress group leader in PMC Arvind Shinde said, "Before election, BJP used the name of Shivaji Maharaj, but after polls, they forgot the great warrior king. But for Shivshrushti, we are going to protest on streets otherwise ruling party will make the fate of this project similar to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial in Mumbai, for which groundbreaking ceremony was done but nothing happened after that."
Responding to the allegations by opposition party leaders, Standing Committee Chairman Murlidhar Mohol said, "We are serious about Shivshrushti. Opposition parties are unnecessarily making a noise. When they were in power, they never did anything, but now are indulging in poor politics."
