Thane MP8217;s missing link with DoT mandarins

MUMBAI, AUG 28: Past failings are best forgotten seems to be the policy of candidates in the fray seeking another term in Thane and Ulhas...

MUMBAI, AUG 28: Past failings are best forgotten seems to be the policy of candidates in the fray seeking another term in Thane and Ulhasnagar in the forthcoming elections.

Prakash Paranjpe, the Shiv Sena candidate nominated for the second consecutive time for the elections in the Thane parliamentary constituency, was at sea when asked how the Department of Telecommunications DoT mandarins in Delhi were not aware that Kalyan was part of Thane city. This has pushed the clock back for lakhs of telephone subscribers who will now have to wait until next year for Internet connections while smaller places like Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri already have the facility.

Paranjpe, along with candidate for Assembly election Seetaldas Harchandani BJP in Ulhasnagar, was speaking to The Indian Express on Saturday. Harchandani was an MLA for three consecutive terms between 1975-90.

When asked why the DOT can8217;t still make a difference between areas that come under the Kalyan Telecom district and the Mumbai MTNL,Paranjape said, officials at Delhi are confused at times. Admitting that in his one-and-half-year term as an MP he did not try to resolve the impasse with the DoT, he said, 8220;I will now do so when the people send me to the Lok Sabha again.quot;

In February this year, the General Manager of Kalyan Telecom District KTD, S Nithiyanandan, had revealed the goof up pointing out how the second largest telecom district in the State had been left without access to the Net. quot;The DoT officials had mistakenly assumed that Kalyan comes under Thane city which is covered by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd,quot; he had said in a press conference adding, quot;Hence they had assumed that KTD already has facilities to provide Internet services.quot;

Paranjpe, however, insisted that he was instrumental in providing some facilities like direct dialling to and from Mumbai Kalyan-Dombivili and Ulhasnagar. When reminded that it was his predecessor Ram Kapse BJP who had done most of the work on this facility, he said, quot;But he achievednothing. I had to start everything from zero because Kapse was flawed in his approach.quot; Kapse8217;s party colleagues Harchandani and BJP leader in the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation Lal Punjabi, who accompanied Paranjpe, made no effort to counter this attack on their party8217;s State vice-president.

Harchandani, who writ challenging TADA detenu and sitting MLA Pappu Kalani8217;s candidature as an Independent since he is behind bars was dismissed by the Bombay High Court on Friday, said, 8220;We will take the battle to the people who will decide whether they want to continue having an MLA behind bars.quot;

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In a case of selective memory, he denied that he had himself been ordered to be imprisoned for a month and fined Rs 2,000 by the High Court in a contempt case when he had dismissed the principal of Navjeevan School Khushi Matai where Harchandani was secretary despite a stay on the dismissal by Justice A V Sawane on February 2, 1994. He had appealed to the same bench for pardon which was granted though he had to paythe fine. There has never been any such case, he claimed when asked whether he was right in filing a plea against Kalani8217;s candidature then.

He said that his main election plank would be the regularisation of encroachments which did not come in the way of the Development Plan. When asked whether this did not amount to endorsing the land mafia, he said, quot;In our zeal to deal with the mafia the people cannot be forgotten. When the cut-off date in Mumbai is 1995 why should it be 1965 for regularisation of encroachments in Ulhasnagar?quot;