“We had discussed this issue in the meeting. The amount was approved for road-widening work.But the corporator insisted on diverting the funds owing to serious water supply issues in the Balewadi area. Hence, we have decided to divert the funds for water supply,“ said Ashwini Kadam, PMC standing committee chairman.
According to the rules, if a proposal is rejected by the civic administration, it should not be approved by the standing committee. However, the committee bypassed the rulebooks and dished out Rs 51 lakh from the road-widening budget of Rs 2.54 crore to alleviate water woes at Balewadi. At the meeting held recently, the standing committee had approved funds for 30 metres of roadwidening work from the Vaikunth Mehta institute to Bhau Patil Road.The total cost of the project is Rs 2.54 crore. NCP corporator Baburao Chandere had proposed to divert Rs 51 lakh from the road-widening project to facilitate water supply by tankers and for clearing debris at Balewadi area. But, the PMC had squarely rejected the proposal, saying the entire money should be used for road widening. The tendering procedure for the road-widening work has already begun. However, Chandere managed to get an approval from the standing committee meeting.
A senior official from PMC’s road department said, “The standing committee is not supposed to approve a diversion of funds without the PMC administration’s permission. The road widening project will be directly affected if the cost is reduced by Rs 51 lakh. Actually, the estimated cost for the project is Rs 3.65 crore, but a provision for Rs 2.54 crore was made in the yearly financial budget. We know that the administration has clearly rejected the proposal.We will raise our concerns during the actual transfer of funds.“
However, Chandere is far from affected by this ambient noise. For him, it’s all in a day’s work. “During my tenure, I have diverted funds for various ward-level development works. So, it was mutually decided that Rs 51 lakh of funds will be diverted. We studied the road-widening proposal and, going by the information we got, Rs 2.54 crore will not be required for the project. It can be implemented within a cost of less than Rs 2 crore. The rest of the Rs 51 lakh will be utilised for water supply by tankers and to clear debris at Baner and Balewadi. Water supply is becoming a crucial problem in the city.Baner and Balewadi are the worst affected areas. The MLA of our area has recently raised this issue in the state Assembly,“ he said.
Source : Pune Mirror
