Corporators hold stir over water supply scheme

Aurangabad: With an aim to corner the Shiv Sena, BJP corporators staged a demonstration in front of the civic administration’s office on Tuesday to protest against the delay in implementing the Rs 1,680 crore water supply scheme in the city.

When the parallel pipeline project could not take off three months ago, the state government approved Rs 1,680 crore for supplying water to all the areas falling in the jurisdiction of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) under the Maharashtra Suvarna Jayanti Nagarotthan Maha-Abhiyan (Golden Jubilee Urban Renewal Mega Mission). The project is to be implemented by the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP). However, the state government has decided to defer the implementation of Nagarotthan Maha-Abhiyan projects, for which work order has not been issued. Subsequently, the last date of accepting tender for the project has been extended to January 14.

Armed with water vessels and placards, the BJP corporators launched a scathing attack on the Sena-led state government for deferring the project. Corporators, including party group leader Pramod Rathod, standing committee chairman Jaishree Kulkarni, former deputy mayor Vijay Autade, former standing committee chairman Raju Shinde, Madhuri Adwant-Deshmukh, Dilip Thorat, Rameshwar Bhadwe, Manisha Munde, participated in the protest. The corporators condemned the government for depriving the city of its rightful water scheme.

The corporators submitted a memorandum to the municipal commissioner seeking re-initiation of the tender process. “Suspending the project would aggravate the issue of water scarcity in the city. The state government seems to be unaffected by people’s woes. Follow-up should be done with the state government for resumption of the project otherwise, the BJP would democratically protest,” stated the letter addressed to the municipal commissioner.

Speaking to the TOI, BJP group leader Pramod Rathod said that the project should remain with the MJP and not be handled by the civic administration. “Attempts are being made to hand over the implementation of the project to AMC. However, from previous experience, we know that the project will fail if it is handed over to the civic body.”