Maharashtra Chief Minister Tuesday approved a proposal to form a separate municipal council for Uruli Devachi and Phursungi villages by removing them from the jurisdiction of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
Shinde called a meeting to discuss the various issues of Uruli Devachi and Phursungi on the insistence of former Sena legislator Vijay Shivtare, who had joined the Shinde faction after the party’s split. Representatives of the villages, along with the district collector and the PMC commissioner, attended the meeting.
The two villages were merged with the PMC in 2017 but the residents had been demanding separation from it since then citing a lack of basic civic amenities despite being made to pay property tax. They also said the civic body set up its dumping ground in their jurisdiction. The tussle reached various courts and the municipal commissioner resisted the demand for separation saying the civic body would soon take up various civic works of water supply and sewage treatment for the area. The PMC even started the process of a town planning scheme for the development of the area, estimated to have a population of around 2.5 lakh.
There were speculations that the PMC would be split into two parts to ensure good governance for all the areas. Guardian minister Chandrakant Patil had recently expressed the need of forming smaller urban local bodies for increasing the efficiency of civic bodies. It was speculated that a separate municipal council for Hadapsar and Nagar Road area would be formed.
