Leniency for fringe village buildings

PUNE, August 6: Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Agarwal today said that the corporation would adopt a lenient approach towards the construct...

PUNE, August 6: Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Agarwal today said that the corporation would adopt a lenient approach towards the constructions in the 38 fringe villages recently included in the municipal limit.

He said the buildings, plans for which were approved by gram panchayats, would be regularised if there is no major violation of development control rules.

The civic chief was addressing a meeting of the former sarpanchs of the villages at the PMC. The meeting was called by Mayor Vatsala Andekar to deliberate over the problems faced by the residents of the fringe villages.

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Agarwal pointed out that the administration had already undertaken the work of preparing a separate development plan for the villages. The plan would help planned development there, he said.

Former sarpanchs brought to the notice of the administration the fact that despite inclusion of the village in the corporation limits, adequate civic amenities were not being provided by the PMC.

The condition of roads and school buildings in the villages continues to be pathetic, they charged. Despite repeated complaints, there is no improvement in water supply. Even the stock of medicines at the dispensaries was inadequate, the former sarpanchs charged, they said.

The former sarpanchs also brought told Agarwal that balwadi and primary school teachers had not received wages during the past six months as the PMC school board had not taken over the schools. Though the villages have been attached to divisional ward committees, the villagers were required to approach the PMC headquarters in Shivajinagar to procure birth and death certificates, causing hardship.

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Agarwal assured them that the PMC would soon start issuing birth and death certificates through its local offices in the villages. The school board will be directed to take over balwadis and schools. The PMC would request the State Government to transfer the management of the zilla parishad schools to the PMC, Agarwal added.

He said the PMC had provided Rs 10.5 crore in the current budget for water supply schemes for fringe villages, besides allocation of Rs 7 crore for road works. The condition of roads and water supply situation would improve by the end of this financial year, he hoped.

The villages still have no elected member to represent the grievances of the villagers at the civic general body meetings. Agarwal said he would consider inclusion of former sarpanchs in ward committees.