Mangaon Nagar Panchayat passes Rs 158 crore underground sewer project 10-6; Opposition to approach Collector

A special meeting of the Mangaon Nagar Panchayat on the underground sewer project ended in uproar on Thursday, October 29. The meeting was held in the auditorium of the nagar panchayat office. The project was approved by 10 votes to 6, but Opposition councillors called the meeting itself against the rules and said they would complain about it to the Raigad District Collector.

The project has come to the Mangaon Nagar Panchayat under MUWREP with the help of the World Bank. Funds of Rs 158 crore have already been sanctioned for it. For the project to be implemented across the nagar panchayat area, the council had to pass a resolution by majority. This was why Thursday's meeting was called. It was convened by presiding officer and nagar panchayat president Sharmila Surve.

Speaking on the resolution, Surve asked councillors who approved of the project to raise their hands. In the show-of-hands vote, 10 votes were cast in favour and 6 against, and the resolution was passed. Surve said the people had elected her, so she would never oppose development works, and that the project had to be implemented in the nagar panchayat.

A meeting on the issue had been called earlier. The first meeting of councillors on the underground sewer project was held on August 27. A second meeting was now called two months later, which the Opposition resented.

Anand Yadav, a former nagar panchayat president and now a councillor, who is a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, objected to Surve's stand. Yadav said he had no objection to development works. According to him, he too is of the view that an underground sewer project should be built. But he said the project had been rejected unanimously at the nagar panchayat meeting in August. He asked what had happened since then that made it necessary to hold another meeting within two months. Yadav called the meeting against the rules and illegal.

Yadav also raised the question of money. According to him, the nagar panchayat will have to pay 5 per cent of the cost at the start, about Rs 7 crore. He said the project would lead to a tax on the city's residents. Yadav also said the nagar panchayat's finances are currently poor, and it does not have the money even to pay the electricity bill and staff salaries.

Present at the meeting were nagar panchayat president Sharmila Surve, vice-president Riya Ubhare, councillor Anand Yadav, former president and current councillor Dnyandev Pawar, water supply committee chairman Ajit Tarlekar and women and child welfare committee chairperson Nandini Bamgude. Councillors Kapil Gaikwad, Dinesh Ratvadkar, Rajesh Mehta, Sachin Bombale and Prashant Sable, and women councillors Mamta Thore, Rashmi Mundhe, Sushila Wadhwal, Laxmi Jadhav, Suvidha Khaire and Harshada Sondkar were also present. Nominated councillors Vishwajit Jadhav and Vithoba Palkar and chief officer Santosh Mali also attended.