KALYAN, FEB 6: Villagers in the Kalyan-Dombivali jurisdiction are hopeful that with Narayan Rane taking over from Manohar Joshi as Maharashtra's Chief Minister, there will finally be an end to their troubles.A month ago, Joshi said he would take a week to find a solution to the long-pending problems of 27 villages of the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation. "We will work out a solution within a week," Joshi said, in presence of hundreds of villagers at the Pimpleshwar temple at Khidkali here on January 7, 1999 after a whirlwind tour of the area.Joshi's ouster is seen by many here as a sign that solutions to their problems are near. President of the Gramin Vikas Sangharsh Samiti (under which 60,000 villagers have been boycotting all civic, assembly and parliamentary elections since 1991 to protest their forced amalgamation into the KDMC) Rajaram Salwi told The Indian Express, "Joshi was of an urban mentality and could not have empathised with the villagers," adding, "We have vested hope in current CMNarayan Rane as he comes from a rural background." Salwi says he has sought a meeting between the representatives of the GVSS and the CM to convey the urgency of the situation. An indication of the shape of things to come was provided with Salwi's observation that the villagers "are ready for a compromise."Joshi had reportedly created a controversy by suggesting that only a few of the 27 villages will be allowed to retain their gram panchayat status, during the last meeting with the GVSS on January 12. "You decide among yourselves which villages should be left out," he is reported to have suggested.Every leader wants his village left out. Salwi, however, said, "We will decide this issue amicably. The differences are not as big as some vested interests are making them out to be."Local leaders, however, think otherwise. "We will not settle for anything less than the 27 villages," GVSS vice-president Ganesh Mhatre said.He added, "If the government is worried about revenue loss to the KDMC as all theindustries are located here, we don't mind if they are kept in the KDMC."But how will the villages sustain themselves? "We will duplicate Anna Hazare's Ralegaon Siddhi model here,'' says Mhatre, who, as much as his fellow villagers, is happy about Manohar Joshi being sacked.``We distributed pedas and burst crackers in most villages to mark his ouster,'' he says.Villagers, he says, are also happy that Jagannath Patil has lost his ministership. Since Patil is from the Agri community, who are in a majority here, there were expectations that he would ensure a fair deal for the villagers.He says the villagers have organised a Satyanarayan pooja on February 12 at Bhisole in gratitude, "for punishing those who dared to take false vows in his name."
