PUNE: The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday protested over the issue of delay in the Bhama-Askhed water supply project in the General Body (GB) meeting.
The corporators of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Ahmednagar Road area also joined the agitation. The Congress-NCP combine criticised the alleged inefficiency of BJP, while BJP corporators held the civic administration responsible for the delay.
The Bhama-Askhed project was launched to quench the thirst of around 14.50 lakh of the population of the eastern part of the city by laying a pipeline from Bhama-Askhed dam to Pune. It was started in 2014 and was initiated by the Congress-NCP government. The project cost initially was Rs 380 crore while the deadline was July 2017. However, it has not been completed yet. Now, work has stopped due to the agitation by the project affected people over the issue of compensation.
In the monthly GB meeting, local corporators of Ahmednagar Road area from the Congress, NCP and BJP took part in the agitation and asked questions over the delay in the project. Opposition leader and NCP corporator Dilip Barate, Mahendra Pathare, Subhas Jagtap, Ganesh Dhore and Congress corporator Arvind Shinde participated in the protest. Later, BJP corporator and former standing committee chairman Yogesh Mulik, Anil Tingre, Sheetal Shinde, Rahul Bhandare, Aishwarya Jadhav, Aditya Malve, Sheetal Sawant joined the stir.
Mahendra Pathare said, “The project was started during former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s tenure. However, the project is still incomplete.” The Congress and NCP corporators held BJP responsible for the incomplete work of the project.
BJP corporator Anil Tingre said, “The civic administration had assured us that the project will be completed in December but the work has stopped. Vishrantwadi-Kalas area is not receiving water for the past two days. We don’t want water meters until the project is completed.” Former standing committee chairman of BJP Yogesh Mulik asked the civic administration when it would complete the project.”
PMC Chief Superintendent Engineer of water supply department VG Kulkarni said, “Bhama-Ashked jack well work will be completed by December end. Remaining three kilometre of the water pipeline laying work has stopped due to the agitation. We will take help from the police to complete it.”
