Wagholi gram panchayat residents extend support to merger in PMC

Akash Dhanurkar 

Wagholi, falling on the eastern side of Pune in the last few years was eagerly awaiting to be merged in the Pune Municipal Corporation. Even after real giants developed several premium projects the area lacked development projects from adequate water supply to better roads, amenities for citizens, almost everything. It is a everyday struggle for the residents to fight for their basic rights to live. 

The residents of the area are puzzled on whom to hold accountable, to escalate their suggestions and problems faced on regular basis. The residents of Wagholi have complained that “it becomes very tough to escalate our problems to our representatives because there is a bigger loop of panel, grampanchayat, tehsildar, zilla parishad and later collector”. 

Unlike the system PMC, where it becomes easier for the citizens to approach the public representative, and then the commissioner. With the recent news on Wagholi likely to be included in the PMC limits, citizens of the area took to Twitter, more than thousands of hashtags (#PMC4Wagholi) are trending, as the residents have took their stand to support the move, while also questioning the opposition to not hinder the merge of Wagholi with PMC.  
While talking to one of the eight board directors of the Wagholi Association, Sanjeev Kumar Patil, a resident of the area since last ten years, he said, “The time has come for us to stand with move of including Wagholi in PMC. How long do we stay deprived of our basic rights? The area is vast and developing when the housing societies are emerging. So, when the urbanization is taking place, whom do we hold accountable for the development and the problems we are facing ?” 

Another member and director of the association, Sandesh Lokhande from Prestine Classic Wagholi HSA said, “We understand that the development of the area will happen slowly and steadily if we merge with PMC, but we would atleast have a single competent body that will be accountable for solving our problems.”

But, a bit of polarised views are also observed, calculating inefficiency of PMC. A social activist from the area, Shivdas Pawar, while talking to Pulse, said, “We have no issue with merging our area with PMC, but can PMC propose a plan that will display the development planned for Wagholi? Can they allocate a package for the development of the area when the corporation has proved inefficient in dealing with the areas under its governance.” 
According to the information provided by the association, almost 23 villages have been approved to merge with PMC. The Wagholi residents are hoping that the orders will be rolled out soon so that the picture of merging Wagholi with PMC will get clear.