A day after returning to power in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, the BJP has clarified that it will not be in a position to ensure daily water supply to the industrial city, a promise made by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar during the election campaign.
“It will not be possible to provide daily water supply, but we will ensure that water supply on alternate days is reduced to full pressure,” BJP Pimpri-Chinchwad president Shatrughan Kate said at a press conference on Sunday. BJP leaders former MP Ambar Sable, MLA Mahesh Landge, youth wing chief Anup More, former corporators Moreshwar Shedge Raju Durge, Sujata Palande and others were present.
Kate said that during her tenure, the BJP had ensured additional water supply to the city. “For years, Pimpri-Chinchwad had only one source of water. But during our government from 2017 to 2022, we got approval to draw additional water from Andra and Bhama Askhed dams. As of today, the city has a population of 35 lakh. In the next 10 years, the population will grow even more. We will face a water problem and therefore, it is important that we plan from today itself. Instead of water daily, we will ensure that citizens get their adequate supply of water. “Water supply every day is not a possibility,” he stated.
Kate also set the record straight face to face. He said the development plan that has been prepared and submitted to the state government will not be scrapped. “By scrapping the development plan, we cannot achieve development. We will discuss the issue in the PCMC house. Wherever there are objections, we will take corrective measures,” he said. During the election campaign, Ajit Pawar had said that the DP would be eliminated once it came to power. “As many as 50,000 objections were received to the draft development plan. They tried to build a slaughterhouse near the temple town of Alandi. When we come to power, we will ensure that the DP is eliminated,” he said.
As many as 85 BJP corporators have been elected in the recently held civic elections. In the 2017 elections, 78 companies were elected.
Kate said the BJP was not affected by the cross-vote. “But it is true that in some panels the candidates did not agree with each other. We did not force anyone to come to our party. They came alone due to the growing popularity and acceptance of the BJP among the people, as ours is the only party that has a development agenda for the city and for every citizen.”
Kate said she had predicted before the results that her party would win more than 80 seats. “This was based on our analysis of different seats. We were actually sure of getting more than 100 seats, but we lost some seats by a small margin. In view of such contests, I had predicted that we would get more than 80 seats and finally we got 85 seats. This shows the immense confidence that the people of Pimpri-Chinchwad have in our ability to deliver. Had we not implemented a number of development projects and welfare projects of the central government and state, we would not have won. “This is kind of a landslide victory,” he said.
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Going forward, Kate said the BJP will continue to ensure the all-round development of Pimpri-Chinchwad. “We will bring together all corporators to ensure all-round development of Pimpri-Chinchwad,” he said.
When asked about the allegations made by Ajit Pawar, Kate said, “We will investigate them, but most of the allegations were related to the elections. During the election period, the opposition makes such wild allegations… When we were in power, they hardly made any allegations. And now during the election period, they woke up. And all the allegations were made without providing any substantial proof.”