This is an archive article published on August 27, 2020
Supporters of Mahesh Landge & Laxman Jagtap reject Sena leader’s proposal to develop 3 roads in Wakad
Laxman Jagtap, however, said, "I am not fully aware why the proposal was rejected by the standing committee. But some members have told me that an inflated estimate of the road was submitted and therefore, there was a need to revise the proposal”.
Supporters of BJP MLAs Mahesh Landge and Laxman Jagtap rejected a proposal for developing three DP roads in Wakad in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) on Thursday.
Two proposals worth Rs 104 crore were placed before the civic standing committee by Shiv Sena member Rahul Kalate, who is from Wakad. In last week’s civic meeting, members supporting Landge had backed Kalate’s proposal for constructing a school and developing a DP road in Wakad. However, at Thursday’s meeting, supporters of both Landge and Jagtap joined hands and rejected the Sena leader’s proposal.
Kalate had contested against BJP leader Laxman Jagtap in the state Assembly elections. After BJP members considered close to Landge in the civic standing committee supported Kalate’s proposal last week, it had angered the Jagtap camp, which had complained to senior BJP leaders such as former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and state unit chief Chandrakant Patil, said sources.
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“Last week, our group had supported Kalate’s road construction proposal. But today, both the groups voted against the proposal,” said Kartik Landge, brother of Mahesh Landge.
While Kartik Landge denied that there was a feud between the two, he admitted that the issue had received attention from senior BJP leaders.
“There was pressure from top leaders for the two groups to work together and present a picture of unity, otherwise it would send out a wrong image of the party…,” he said.
Jagtap, however, said, “I am not fully aware why the proposal was rejected by the standing committee. But some members have told me that an inflated estimate of the road was submitted and therefore, there was a need to revise the proposal”.
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Kalate alleged that the ruling BJP was “playing politics” with the issue of development. “Just because I had contested the election from Chinchwad, my proposals for road construction are being rejected because the BJP enjoys majority in the civic body. MLA Laxman Jagtap is behind this move….BJP’s behaviour only shows that the party is against development. Wakad is close to the IT hub…. thousands of office-goers and students use the roads which are in bad shape. The condition has only worsened during the monsoon. I have no other option but to complain to the chief minister about this,” he said.
Kalate said his proposal was in line with budgetory provisions. “The PCMC commissioner’s budget had also made a provision for these roads…,” he said.
Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar said he had made a provision for the roads in his budget but didn’t know why the proposal was rejected. “…The committee can answer the question,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mahesh Landge denied that he was resigning as BJP’s Pimpri-Chincwhad unit president, in the wake of speculation on the issue.
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.
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