Fadnavis in Pune: BJP’s Tilekar gets the backing; 24x7 water scheme deadline revealed
Tilekar was booked by Kondhwa police last week, along with his younger brother Chetan, and associate Ganesh Kamthe, for allegedly attempting to extort ₹50 lakh from a fibre-optics service provider.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis credited Yogesh Tilekar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Hadapsar, from carrying forward the Katraj-Kondhwa road project from paper to reality. The chief minister’s presence on Thursday at the project’s foundation stone laying ceremony organised by Tilekar, who is facing a criminal case, sent out a message that he is not being isolated.
Tilekar was booked by Kondhwa police last week, along with his younger brother Chetan, and associate Ganesh Kamthe, for allegedly attempting to extort ₹50 lakh from a fibre-optics service provider. This company’s representatives had approached police, claiming the trio demanded ₹50 lakh to allow their firm to carry out cable-laying work. Soon after filing an FIR, Milind Gaikwad, the senior police inspector of Kondhwa station who had registered the case against Tilekar, was transferred sparking controversy.
Fadnavis said that Tilekar overcame opposition from many quarters for the proposed 3.5 kilometre road. He said that the road project was discussed by previous governments and also in the assembly before the Pune municipal corporation (PMC) gave its go-ahead and the plan is now starting after a long period. “This road would be one of the city’s landmarks as it is 84-meter wide and will have two underpasses, cycle tracks and wide footpaths,” he said.
Earlier, activists and opposition leaders had raised questions about the high estimates quoted in the tender process for the proposed road plan.
The chief minister assured to complete the 24x7 water scheme work in the next two and a half years and said that the BJP government had cleared all important projects related to the city that were gathering dust for the last 15 to 20 years.
“Pune is the second largest city in state and known at the international level after Mumbai. The city’s various projects, including Metro, outer ring road, river improvement and equal water distribution, which remained on paper for many years, have started with the help from central state and governments. The state is planning to build one more Metro line between Hinjewadi and Shivajinagar on public private partnership (PPP) model.
Speaking at the event, Pune mayor Mukta Tilak said that the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) could not carry out the Katraj-Kondhwa road project when they were ruling PMC, but now are making allegations regarding the plan.
Tilekar said that NCP and Shiv Sena are making allegations that hardly 40 per cent of the land for the road project is in the possession of PMC, but the civic administration will acquire the required land for the plan in the next one month.