Renaming of Salisbury Park garden: BJP leader refuses to budge; will meet PMC chief, say agitating residents

Protesting residents to meet PMC commissioner on Monday. Defiant Shrinath Bhimale says he has citizens’ support.

Pune | Updated: April 23, 2022 08:49 PM IST

4 min read

The garden was initially named ‘PMC garden’. However, in March, the residents learnt that its name has been changed to Prof Yashwantrao Bhimale Garden, triggering protests. (Express Photo)

Even as residents of Salisbury Park area continue their agitation over renaming of a garden there after BJP leader Shrinath Bhimale’s father, the former corporator has made it clear that he would not “buckle under pressure”.

Bhimale claimed he has support of 90 per cent of people living in the area. The agitating residents, meanwhile, said they would meet Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) chief on Monday over the issue. “The protest is orchestrated by a handful of people. I have the support of 90 per cent of the people living in Salisbury Park area. People have given to me in writing that they are not interested in changing the name of the garden. The residents have told me that they want peace and development…,” said Bhimale.

Former BJP corporator Shrinath Bhimale. (Express Photo)

In November 2021, the civic body had inaugurated a garden in the area and named it PMC garden. In March, the residents found that its name has been changed to Prof Yashwantrao Bhimale Garden following which a number of them set up Salisbury Park Residents Forum demanding that the garden should not be named after any private individual.

Salisbury Park has around 40 residential societies with a population of over 3,000 people.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Bhimale said he had fought hard to get the land acquired by the PMC for setting up of the garden. “It has taken me 15 years to ensure acquisition of the land by PMC. Besides, my father was a social worker, author, a gold medalist in different languages, agriculture expert and someone who worked relentlessly for the citizens. What is wrong if the garden gets his name?”

Bhimale said there was nothing illegal about the garden getting his father’s name. “The resolution for naming of the garden after my father has been duly approved by the civic general body meeting. The naming committee of the PMC has also given its nod,” he added.

Also Read | Know Your City: Decades later, Cafe Goodluck is still Pune’s go-to hangout place

Alleging that some people were trying to defame him and his party, Bhimale said only a handful of citizens have problem with the garden being renamed. “Those who are opposing the garden’s (new) name are conducting an online survey and getting signatures of people from outside Salisbury Park area,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

Bhimale said former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have enquired with him about the naming controversy. “I have explained to them my position. There is no pressure of any sort from my party to change the name,” he said.

Faizal Poonawala, chairperson of the Salisbury Park Residents Forum, said, “We strongly doubt the claims made by the former corporator that 90 per cent of the people are supporting him. The truth is that every other citizen in the area is agitated over the issue. The reason is that not one but scores of citizens from the area fought to get the land acquired for the garden.”

Poonawala said, “Scores of prominent citizens from the area fought up to the Supreme Court and got the land reserved for the garden…why should it be named after one individual? We have nothing against the corporator’s father… The civic norms, too, stipulate that the garden should be named only after national personalities or prominent environmentalists.”

Vinita Deshmukh, another key member of the forum, said they met Fadnavis earlier this week who assured them he would sort out the issue. The members of the forum were led by Gopesh Mehta.

Story continues below this ad

Poonawala said, “Since Fadnavis and the BJP are yet to respond despite our protests, we have decided to meet PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar on Monday and urge him to retain the original name of the garden.”

The forum has also roped in former PMC commissioner Arun Bhatia to support their agitation. “He has promised to take up the issue with the state government,” said the forum in a release.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories

Tags:

Bharatiya Janata Party corporator protest Pune Municipal Corporation Salisbury Park