Infighting within the city unit of BJP is coming to the fore as party leaders face off over the proposed Balbharti-Paud road link project. National vice-president of women’s wing of BJP and former legislator Medha Kulkarni has opposed the mega infrastructure project which is being promoted by Guardian Minister Chandrakant Patil and former mayor Murlidhar Mohol.
“I am against the road project that cuts across Vetal Tekdi and have conveyed it to Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC),” Kulkarni told The Indian Express.
Kulkarni along with the representatives of Vetal Tekdi Bachav Kruti Samiti, including Sushma Date, Sumita Kale, Prajakta Divekar, Harshad Abhyankar, Bhanu Mulay, Madhavi Rahirkar, Paresh Lodha, Yogesh Alankar and Pradeep Ghumare met Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar to register their protest on the project. The BJP leader said she favoured the project previously but is now convinced that the road across the hill is now not required. “While the Pune Metro project, under leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is giving impetus to mass public transport, construction of new roads is detrimental to public transport, and leading to a rise in number of private vehicles,” Kulkarni said.
She said the proposed road was needed 20 years ago due to lack of a public transport system, but now situation is changing. “The city has already lost two-third of its 900 hectare of green cover on city hills due to illegal construction, and the road project on the hill will adversely impact the ecology and environment,” she said further.
The BJP legislator said all experts have raised concern over the damage to environment due to project and PMC is unable to address their concern. Former mayor Mohol and sitting legislator Siddarth Shirole alongwith civic administration had visited the project site two weeks ago to convince those opposing the project. “We will address all concerns of citizens opposing the project, as is needed to decongest traffic,” Mohol had said.
The Guardian minister too had in the recent past spoken about the need of the project. Interestingly, Kulkarni and Mohol are from Kothrud Assembly segment.
Kulkarni had represented the Assembly previously in a five-year term but was denied a party ticket in 2019 elections to make place for then state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil. In the recent Kasba bypoll, Mohol and Patil led the election campaign for BJP to retain the party bastion, but it lost to the Congress.
