Wakad residents hold review meeting on encroachment & road widening issues with PCMC, seek immediate action  

On March 6, 2024, the residents of the housing association met at the municipal office of PCMC commissioner to review the meeting held on January 17, 2024 regarding Datta Mandir Road widening in Wakad. The meeting was attended by residents of approximately 17-19 housing societies. During this meeting, all of them raised the following issues before the commissioner:

As per further information shared by Wakad Datta Mandir Road Cooperative Housing Societies Group,

·         After the January 17 meeting, no action was taken by the PCMC except for minor moves, which angered all the residents of Wakad and hence this meeting was held to ask questions and answers to the Commissioner.

·         According to the order given by the commissioner to the officials of the concerned department, the department informed the current situation to the residents of Wakad during this meeting.

·         When asked about the possession of the disputed land on Datta Mandir Road in Wakad, the Commissioner informed that the legal process has not yet been initiated. Despite encroachment on 60%-70% of the land owned by the PCMC, the PCMC is deliberately turning a blind eye and avoiding action. Therefore, after hearing the replies of the concerned department, the residents expressed their strong displeasure to the Commissioner regarding this time-consuming and non-time-bound process.

·         Also, the residents of Wakad demanded to narrow the width of the proposed footpaths to be constructed on the road where the work is in progress. The response of the Commissioner on this subject caused a lot of confusion among the people in the meeting.

·         The commissioner explained about the footpaths and the objective of the PCMC to keep them wide. But then he made a statement that “the high-ranking and elite residents of Wakad should not look at the footpaths from their air-conditioned vehicles, but they need to look at the sidewalks from the eyes of ordinary citizens as well as practical ones” and then due to his statement, there was a lot of confusion in the meeting and displeasure was expressed. The residents demanded action against the handcarts and vendors on the footpath.

·         The commissioner expressed the hope that the residents of Wakad would regularly visit the ward office and report these and other problems.

After the end of this meeting, the residents submitted 23 statements to the Commissioner’s office regarding their housing organization. Also, all these correspondences have been sent to the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Office, both the Deputy Chief Minister’s Offices. The Ministry of Urban Development and Civil Affairs has been ordered to take appropriate action by the Chief Minister’s Office through e-mail.

Overall, after the review meetings, the dissatisfaction among the residents of the housing societies in Wakad increased even more. Shouldn’t we, as citizens of the city, raise questions?

Those present as well as other members of the housing association had already expressed their fear of pressing the Nota button or boycotting the voting process altogether during the coming elections. Therefore, on the whole, the organizers of the meeting and the attendees expressed their displeasure on the issue of 45 meter widening of Datta Mandir Road, after listening to petty, empty promises and seeing the bleak future of the project.

Shreyas Vange