I am in favour of merger: Satej Patil

Kolhapur: District guardian minister Satej Patil is treading a cautious path over

merger

of fringe villages into the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (

KMC

) by asking pro-merger activists to initiate a dialogue with the villagers first.

The pro-merger activists met the minister asking him to get the proposal merger of fringe villages in KMC approved by the state government. The merger plan has hit a roadblock for several decades due to stiff opposition from villagers. The last government, adopting a middle path, had set up the Kolhapur Urban Area Development Authority for development in fringe villages. However, the authority has been idle since it was formed owing to shortage of staff and funds.

“Expansion of city limits is the need of hour. I want to say that I am in favour of merger. However, the pro-merger activists should engage in dialogue with the villagers. They should convince the villagers to agree for merger by letting them know the benefits. Once the first stage of engagement is done, I will call for a meeting to resolve the issue,” Patil said.

Patil said the villagers should get the confidence that they will not loose anything if the villages are merged with the KMC. “The main concern was that of building permissions. Now, the gram panchayats have no right to grant building permissions. It is now with the development authority. Such doubts must be cleared first,” he added.

Baba Indulkar, a pro-merger activist, said merger of 20 villages from fringe areas has been proposed recently by the KMC in a fresh proposal sent to the state government. However several villages are submitting petitions for non-inclusion.