Pawar crusades for Pune piped water now

PUNE, May 2: Former chief minister Sharad Pawar launched a tirade against the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government, on Thursday, for...

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PUNE, May 2: Former chief minister Sharad Pawar launched a tirade against the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government, on Thursday, for slashing the fiscal provisions for Pune’s much-needed closed-pipe water supply scheme. This, he said, was burdening the civic exchequer.

The previous Congress government had decided to bear half the total cost of the project, Pawar said while adding that the saffron alliance had reduced the grants to 23 per cent. In a bid to shut the mouths of the people who criticised the Congress decision to hold the National Games in Pune, Pawar said that the development work undertaken prior to the National Games had helped ease the traffic problems of the city. Had it not been done at that time, the situation would have become worse by now, he quipped.

Pawar’s outburst came while he was inaugurating a swimming pool at Aundh amidst heavy slogan-shouting as city BJP activists staged vigourous demonstrations. They attempted to block Pawar’s motorcade, trying to break the security cordon at the function venue in the process.

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The demonstrators main grouse was that the Congress rulers in the Pune Municipal Corporation, had set a `bad precedence’ by spending a whopping Rs 60 lakh on the Aundh swimming pool ignoring the water woes of the suburb.

Commotion prevailed outside the venue as security personnel swooped down on the demonstrators and whisked them away to a corner of the road after BJP corporator Anil Shirole tried to block Pawar’s car. Shirole almost had stopped the Mayor’s car believing the former Maharashtra Chief Minister to be travelling in it. Pawar, however, had already passed the demonstrators in a Pagero jeep.

While a scuffle ensued between Shirole and former mayor Ankush Kakade, the leader of opposition in PMC, Nandu Kulkarni and a few corporators tried unsuccessfully to break the police cordon. One of the corporators, Vikas Mathkari complained that he had been kicked in the stomach by a police officer. The demonstrators later held a protest meeting opposite the venue while Congress leaders, MP Suresh Kalmadi, mayor Vandana Chavan and local corporator Datta Gaikwad, made their speeches.

Yet, for reasons best known to the BJP leaders, the demonstrators wound up and left the venue well before Sharad Pawar got up to address the gathering. Pawar in his brief address, took a dig at the BJP demonstrators asking them to put in some efforts to make their government implement certain decisions taken in public interest by the previous Congress government. Pawar asked fellow Congressmen to ignore the `myopic elements’ in the opposition. He also asked the public to make a better choice when they got the opportunity again.

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Local corporator Gaikwad, in his attempt to counter the objections raised by his BJP opponents, stated that the swimming tank would be fed with bore-well water that had been dug specially for the purpose.

Sixty eight BJP demonstrators were taken into custody by the Chatushrungi police and were later released.

Scribes manhandled

Press reporters covering Sharad Pawar’s function in Aundh on Thursday were manhandled by the city police. Police officials picked up an argument with pressmen who were watching the police action against the BJP demonstrators from behind the footpath railings.

The police asked the reporters to go away “Get away or go and stand among them (the demonstrators who were pushed to a corner),” PSI Sudhakar Kate of traffic wing told newsmen. The reporters, later, registered a protest with senior police officials.