Panchayat puts up balance sheet

‘‘No matter what we would do, the villagers would always accuse us of corruption. Ever since we began this exercise, credibility has gone up. Now, anyone can come in here and clear their doubts about the gram panchayat’s expenditure,’’ says Kolhe.

Situated 11 km from Pune and two kilometres beyond the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits, the village’s story is one of rebirth, after being merged with the PMC in 1997 and delinked subsequently in 2000. The gram panchayat, formed in 1958, was dissolved before the merger and revived only in 2002.

The upshot — the new panchayat comprises young people. Besides Kolhe (35) and deputy sarpanch Nandkishore Jagannath Mate (31), several other members are in their early thirties. Also, six of the 17 members are women. ‘‘We’ve decided to take up one issue per year. In the first year, we put water supply in place.

In the second year, we installed 70 public lavatories; there were only three earlier. This year, it’s sewage problems,’’ informs Kolhe.

Kolhe says that funds are hard to come by, as a large number of residents are defaulting on tax payment, some upto five years.

‘‘Much of the village land has been acquired by government installations like NDA, PWD, CWPRS, Forest Department and Khadakvasla dam. We need land for a high school. The nearest high school is in Pune,’’ he adds.