Pune Lok Sabha Election: Congress Candidate Ravindra Dhangekar Unveils Manifesto Prioritising Local Issues

Ravindra Dhangekar on Monday released a manifesto unique to Pune’s needs.

9 May 2024

By Khushi Maheshwari 

The Indian National Congress had already released a manifesto on a national level, however, on Monday the party’s Pune candidate published a separate manifesto uniquely curated to grapple with issues pertaining to the constituency. 

In the additional manifesto unveiled on Monday, Congress leader Ravindra Dhangekar pledged to improve public transportation, healthcare and public safety for Pune residents. In a separate statement, the party’s candidate for Pune presented a list of what he called “promises” for the city that, if elected in this term by the voters, would be realised within the following five years. A number of constituencies within Pune have voting day approaching on 13th May. 

Dhangekar has prioritised public transportation, senior citizen safety, water and other issues in his manifesto. Dhangekar states that he will concentrate more on bolstering public transportation by growing the metro network and adding additional e-buses to the PMPML fleet. On the anticipated Balbharati-Paud Phata Road and riverfront development project, however, the manifesto remains mute. 

The Balbharati-Paud Phata Road is a  1.8-kilometre project, which was mentioned in the 2007 PMC development plan, and has been in the works for a while due to opposition from locals and environmentalists who said the road would be bad for Pune because it would go through the rocky terrain of Vetal Tekdi and lead to environmental degradation and loss of green cover. 

Whereas, the RFD project calls for the development of a 44-kilometre stretch of rivers, comprising the Mula (22.2 km), Mutha (10.4 km) and Mula-Mutha (11.8 km) rivers. Two of the project’s several implementation stretches have seen the start of development.

Back in January, the clearance for the RFD Project was deferred by the State Environment Impact Assembly Authority on account of the PMC not submitting a compliance report that met with all the 18 requirements stated by SEIAA last year in November. It urged the civic body for completion of compliance to all conditions listed by it. 

In his speech during the launch of the manifesto, Dhangekar had claimed that the law and order of the city is slipping out of hand with the occurrence of many grave crimes, and cited the recent drug racket bust to make his point. Further, he assured that if elected, he would comply with his manifesto and deliver the city with at least a minimal level of municipal infrastructure in addition to environmentally sustainable and pollution-free development.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had taken to X to dedicate a post to the unveiling of the Manifesto: