Opposition uses Chavan's shoulder to fire at PMC

pune: former mayor vandana chavan's resignation over the controversial attempt to de-zone part of the parvati hill-top, seems to have created a platform for opposition members in the pune municipal corporation (pmc) to launch attacks on the congress. accordingly, former mayor shantilal suratwala on wednesday threatened to resign from the pmc if municipal commissioner t.c.benjamin failed to file a criminal case against mayor datta gaikwad, mla chandrakant chhajed and municipal secretary ramdas jagtap within the next eight days. accusing the trio of tampering with the civic general body records in order to facilitate the de-zoning of the hill-top hill-slope zone in the parvati survey number 86, mr suratwala said, "their act is shameful. but, the municipal commissioner too should have probed the matter." in a memorandum to the commissioner, mr suratwala has criticised him for first announcing a probe into ms chavan's allegations, and later backing out on the grounds that he was not empowered to order an inquiry against the municipal secretary's office. "you are the chief administrative officer of the pmc and you have every right to intervene and stop an illegal act being committed by the general body or the person appointed by it. hence, it is your duty to file a criminal complaint against all those who were involved in the criminal act of tampering the records of the civic general body," mr suratwala said. a copy of the memorandum has also been issued to chief minister vilasrao deshmukh, deputy chief minister chhagan bhujbal, ncp leader sharad pawar and state chief secretary v ranganathan. the patit pavan sanghatana has also demanded that mr benjamin file a criminal case against mr gaikwad, mr chhajed and mr jagtap, failing which the organisation has threatened take the pmc to court. the bjp has already threatened to stage an agitation against mr chhajed and mr gaikwad. meanwhile, four congress corporators including ajit apte, ramdas pawar, manohar nande and suresh shewale have congratulated mr deshmukh for his decision to stall the de-zoning of the parvati survey number 86 and for directing mr benjamin to submit a report over the issue.