Deshmukh stays transfer of civic hospital land

in a triumph for citizens over the civic body, the state government has stalled the pune municipal corporation's contentious proposal to hand over the jorwekar municipal hospital land near alka theatre, to the neighbouring poona hospital. chief minister vilasrao deshmukh has stayed the proposal and directed municipal commissioner t.c. benjamin to submit a detailed report in the matter.in a directive addressed to mr benjamin, the state urban development (ud) department states that according to a complaint by former corporator gopal tiwari, who is heading the citizen's protests, the proposal to hand over 15,000 square feet of municipal hospital land to the private hosptial, was approved at a civic general body meeting on july 26 amid "chaos and din". "according to the complaint, the proposal was approved in haste and without any discussion and debate. hence, the state has decided to stay the proposal. send us a detailed report in this matter," says the ud directive. mr tiwari and local residents, who started a chain hunger strike at the pmc gates last month had withdrawn the same following an assurance by minister of state balasaheb shivarkar. while justifying the cm's latest decision, political observers expressed the opinion that the decision was yet another jolt to the ruling congress in the pmc. it was, perhaps, a fallout of the ongoing cold war between pro-deshmukh and the pro-kalmadi camp, they said. elaborating further, a senior congress leader pointed out that mr deshmukh had forwarded chargesheets against civic officers who had failed to demolish illegal sheds erected by sai services, a company run by close associates of mr kalmadi, following a complaint by former mayor vandana chavan. the state had also granted a stay to de-zone the hill-top hill-slope zone in parvati and, most importantly, had delinked 20 fringe villages from the pmc. in fact, addressing a meeting of party workers in congress bhavan last month, mr kalmadi had not minced his words while criticising the cm for playing into the hands of ncp chief sharad pawar. as the proposal to allot the jorwekar municipal hospital land was floated by congressmen close to mr kalmadi, the state has stalled it, the congress leader said.