Journalism of Courage
The Pune Development Plan (DP) issue was once again raised in the general body (GB) meeting of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Monday with senior Congress corporator Aba Bagul refusing to toe the official stance of his party. Although,the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress party managed to get their supplementary resolutions passed,Bagul hinted that he would be moving the High Court against what he called the illegal nature of the resolutions.
The DP was passed unanimously by the GB on January 7. During the course of discussion on the GB,a record number of supplementary resolutions were received by the GB. The civic body,after scrutinising the resolutions,found that many of them were self contradictory. Subsequently,a notice was moved by NCP corporators Usha Kalamkar and Shivlal Bhosale on Monday,asking the GBs guidance on the matter before the DP is made public for suggestion and objections.
Replying to Bagul,Bhosale said he came to know about the irregularities from media reports and his notice was meant to guide the administration. During the course of discussion,four supplementary suggestions were received from the coroporators. While three resolutions moved by MNS,BJP and Shiv Sena talked about rejecting the notice,the one moved by Dr Siddharth Dhende and Baburao Chandere read,The supplementary suggestions moved on January 7,which has the government demarcation maps sanctioned layouts and other papers attached,be considered by the administration. The resolutions which are unclear or are self contradictory be rejected.
Prashant Waghmare,city engineer,clarified that the PMC has asked the state government for direction about the self contradictory nature of the resolutions but they have not received any guidance from them.
Discussion on the DP saw opposition leaders Ashoke Yenpure,Ashoke Harnawal,Sachin Bhagat,Raju Pawar,Dhanjay Jadhav and others questioning the legality of the notice. Leader of the house,Subhash Jagtap,directed the municipal secretary to initiate voting on the motion. During the voting,the three supplementary resolutions moved by opposition were defeated and the one moved by Dhende and Chandere sailed through. Bagul refused to vote on any of the occasion.
Speaking to the media post voting,Bagul said that this was in contravention to the law. It takes almost three month to get the official demarcations, he said. Jagtap put the onus on the corporators who had moved the resolutions to supply the documents. The DP would be made public on April 4.
