Thane residents backtrack on demand to reinstall Chandrashekhar

May 22: The first round of the confrontation between Thanekars and the state government over the transfer of civic commissioner T Chandras...

May 22: The first round of the confrontation between Thanekars and the state government over the transfer of civic commissioner T Chandrashekhar appears to have gone to the government. The Thane Vikas Sangharsh Samiti spearheading the anti-government struggle admitted in a meeting late on Sunday that it would lay more emphasis on creating a citizens’ pressure group to ensure smooth civic functioning and timely completion of projects than on bringing Chandrashekhar back.

Samiti chairperson Harishchandra Chavan said: “By not paying heed to popular sentiment, the government is doing itself great harm. But we have now decided to pursue positive activism instead of waiting for the government to reverse its decision.” Asked if this meant the Samiti had conceded defeat, he said, “We are confident no one can pursue Thane’s development as vigorously as Chandrashekhar. Once we start raising development issues, it will be clear if we have won or lost.” He added that the hurry with which K P Bakshi was installed as commissioner indicated “how scared the government was of our momentum-gathering movement.”

However, the government now has to contend with charges by the Samiti that the Congress brought pressure on the state government from its Delhi-based leaders to get Chandrashekhar out. “The anti-development brigade took the help of Sonia Gandhi and even George Fernandes to dislodge Chandrashekhar,” Chavan alleged.

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He said a senior Congress MLA from south Mumbai had given Sonia Gandhi a booklet citing instances of Chandrashekhar’s anti-Congress stance a fortnight ago. “After instructions from Delhi, the CM was even more encouraged to go ahead with the transfer,” Chavan said.

Also, he said, Municipal Labour Union leader Sharad Rao, who had been refused an audience by Chandrashekhar, had contacted his mentor, Defence Minister George Fernandes and asked him to “do the needful.”

Chandrashekhar and the Congress have been at loggerheads since last year’s Lok Sabha-Vidhan Sabha polls, when the Congress took objection to a booklet on the lakes beautification project that said that “lifting this Shiv Dhanushya would be difficult without the blessings of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.” The city unit Congress chief Subhash Kanade had then complained to the Election Commission calling the booklet a violation of the poll code.

“The commissioner was pandering to the Sena even after the Cong-NCP government took over. He made use of NCP corporators to co-ordinate with the state government and kept Congress corporators at a distance,” Kanade alleged, accusing Chandrashekhar of creating tension between Congress and NCP.

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After Chandrashekhar refused to absorb casual workers who had participated in the March civic stir, his decision was set aside by the state government. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s disaffection with Chandrashekhar became clear when he refused to turn up on two different occasions for the bhoomi pujan ceremony of the Ghodbunder-Owala road widening project. Even when Deshmukh came to Thane for the Marathi film awards distribution ceremony on April 30, he went to inaugurate a traffic island beautified at Thane but could not find time to make it to Ghodbunder. Deshmukh also stayed away from an investors’ meeting organised by the TMC to attract funding for the proposed light rail project.

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