CM offers no sops to Kalyan

MUMBAI, January 8: Despite some very spirited oratory, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi could do little to salvage his visit to five of the 2...

MUMBAI, January 8: Despite some very spirited oratory, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi could do little to salvage his visit to five of the 21 villages which have boycotted all civic, assembly and parliamentary elections since 1991 to protest their amalgamation into the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation KDMC.

The issue of the 21 villages with a poulation of over 25,000 has been unresolved for a long time. Besides complaining that they will lose the privileges they enjoy in the gram panchayats, the villagers feel KDMC has failed in providing even water, roads and sanitation in spite of collecting taxes from them since 1983, when KDMC was formed.

Blaming the earlier Congress rule for neglect of the region, Joshi said, 8220;The fight here seems to be more for development than identity or existence.8221; He promised to find a solution acceptable to all in a week8217;s time. There were the odd claps ocassionally, but for most of the time the thousands who came expecting a final decision simply didn8217;t respond.

Yet,going by the treatment they gave Labour Minister Shabir Sheikh who spoke earlier, they were kind. Expletives, booing and screams of 8220;traitor8221; rent the air even from women in the audience when Sheikh mentioned he would support only 8220;the keeping out of a few villages from KDMC in cases where it was found appropriate.8221; In fact, so ugly was the mob8217;s mood that it took the Gramin Vikas Sangharsh Samiti8217;s GVSS president Rajaram Salwi8217;s entreaties and threats to make the audience quiet. A visibly shaken Sheikh was so disturbed that he wound up his speech soon afterwards. 8220;I hope the CM has a happy announcment to make to all of us on our Independence Day on January 26 sic,8221; he said before beating a hasty retreat.

Both Salwi and vice-presdent of GVSS Ganesh Mhatre in their speeches earlier had referred pointedly to Sheikh8217;s written promise when he contested from this consitituency during Assembly polls to ensure that all 27 villages are unshackled from KDMC. The others present on the ocassion includedTourism Minister Jagannath Patil, ex-MP Ram Kapse, Sena leader Anant Tare and KDMC mayor Anita Dalwi.

Deputy CM Gopinath Munde, accompanied by Ministers Jagannath Patil and Shabir Sheikh, had visited the villages and promised to 8220;find a way out of the imbroglio in 15 days8221; on March 20, 1998. They were accompanied on thier visit by then Thane guardian minister Ganesh Naik who still wields clout in the area and GVSS president Rajaram Salwi. Also on the CM8217;s itinerary was the inauguration of an 120-bed-capacity strcutre of KDMC8217;s Rukminbai hospital and a vegetable market complex in Dombivli.