By Tannistha Dey
The political game of one-upmanship over whose doings the Pune Metro project should be credited to, saw further escalation with Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan aligning with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s contention that the project got finalized in the Congress administrations that were in power at both the State and Center.
Chavan said that the Pune Metro project had been approved during his tenure as chief minister, at a time when UPA government led Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was in power at the Centre. Getting approval was not an easy task for the Pune Metro project, it has seen many ups and downs in its history.
Talking about the past week, the Nationalist Congress Party chief and the Deputy Chief Minister, Ajit Pawar, himself had declined the Bharitya Janata Party’s attempt to take the credit for the project, saying that the Manmohan-led Union Government has already an approval for the same.
However, the BJP has rejected this version of events. According to Union Minister of State and BJP leader Murlidhar Mohol, the project has earned only “in principle” clearance from the Centre in 2013, and a number of matters are still pending solution at that stage, and it is the failure of the State Government, headed by Congress, to sort them out which has resulted in this delay.
According to Mohol, the project did not see any movement during the Congress rule and got its final clearance only when the BJP government came into power in 2016. The Congress and the NCP tried to take credit for something they could not do, as alleged by Mohol.
Chavan, on other hand, spoke on the involvement of the Congress Party in the development of Pune city and said that much development work has been done through the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. He also said that the Congress Party has both the vision and experience to handle Pune’s civic problems.
Talking about the present situation, Chavan revealed that Pune was facing severe air and water pollution because of the failure of the civic administration in the past few years. He also claimed that all three partners of the mahayuti alliances were more concerned with earning financial gains than with governance.
Chavan further expressed reservations regarding the BJP government’s claims of having turned Pune into a smart city, adding, ‘‘We could not see any change, despite huge expenditure.’’
The former Chief Minister further added that industries have thrived in the Pune region under Congress administration but are now packing their bags due to increasing traffic congestion and the failure of civic infrastructure there. He further stated that corruption has halted the city from unleashing its complete industrial potential.