Maharashtra CM Fadnavis takes charge of Pune; local leaders out of decision making
Fadnavis bypassed Girish Bapat while taking decisions including Agriculture college land acquisition for Metro.
The speed with which chief minister Devendra Fadnavis took the decision on the acquisition of land for Pune Metro has surprised many within and outside BJP. It is an indication, political observers say, that the chief minister has taken complete charge of city affairs while keeping the local leadership out of the decision making process pertaining to major projects.
Earlier in 2015, Fadnavis had appointed guardian minister Girish Bapat as the president of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA), but had later amended it and announced the CM as the president of PMRDA.
When the Metro project work started in the city, the chief minister took charge of the project and demanded all the necessary reports on a fast track basis without consulting the local leadership.
Recently, the chief minister took the decision to acquire the land that belonged to the Agriculture College, which was a contentious issue given the resistance from college authorities over the transfer of land on Ganesh Khind Road . Local leaders were not aware about the development and came to know about it only after the process was completed.
Another issue that Fadnavis directly intervened in was the announcement of the Development Plan for Pune city, surprising the local leaders.
The chief minister also decided to acquire the land that belonged to the Food Corporation of India including the land where their Shivajinagar godown functions. Apart from this, the land where Kothrud Garbage depo stands and the land at Swargate was also acquired. Fadnavis did not involve guardian Minister Girish Bapat in this decision making process and even the local leadership was not aware about it.
While cancelling the tenders for the 24x7 water scheme, the chief minister had directly given instructions to the municipal commissioner, though there were varying opinions within the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Recently, while addressing the cancellation of the 24x7 water tenders, MP Sanjay Kakade also accepted that the chief minister is the key man for Pune and that he is taking all the decisions pertaining to Pune city. BJP’s local leaders also accepted this claim off-the-record and said that it was advantageous owing to the fact that the projects are implemented at a faster pace as the CM is directly involved.
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Along with policy decisions, CM Devendra Fadnavis is also involving political appointments in the Pune. When there was an issue of nominating a member at Pune Municipal Corporation, the chief minister interfered in the last moment and appointed his supporter Ganesh Bidkar.