People complain about absent MLA

PIMPRI: The Pimpri constituency sitting MLA and Shiv Sena candidate Gautam Chabukswar and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Anna Bansode will contest against each other for the forthcoming State Assembly elections. 

While Bansode was the first MLA of the Pimpri constituency which was formed in 2009, he lost by 1,000 votes to Chabukswar in the previous 2014 elections when RPI candidate Chandrakanta Sonkamble was also in the fray and the competition between the three was intense.

However, many residents of Pimpri constituency say that Chabuskwar has largely been inactive throughout his tenure. 

The people of the constituency are dealing with problems like cleanliness, autorickshaw drivers’ menace and bad roads which remain unresolved till date.

Chabukswar, who is a PhD holder and a teaching faculty at Pali Department of Savitribai Phule Pune University, has held the post of deputy mayor twice in the past and is a five-time corporator.

Blueprint of Pimpri
This constituency is smallest among the three constituencies including Bhosari and Chinchwad in Pimpri-Chinchwad. The Pimpri constituency covers a large number of slum areas in its jurisdiction. This constituency is reserved for candidates of Schedule Caste (SC).

Around 40 per cent of the total population in Pimpri constituency resides in the slum areas. One of the major issues which have remained unresolved is of slum dwellers. Many residents of slum areas have not received the promised houses under the rehabilitation scheme of Smart City initiative by the State government. 

Invisible MLA
Some of the residents said that they have not heard Chabukswar’s name at all, but are familiar with Bansode. “I haven’t heard about Chabukswar and neither have I seen him, but I know Bansode as he had also visited our area recently,” said A Kundu, a resident of Ajmera. 

Malini Shitole, a resident of Morwadi for the past 42 years, said, “Bansode still visits our area, while Chabukwar has never come here. I have only seen him on TV or read about him in the newspapers. I am not aware if Chabukswar has worked in other areas or not. Anyway, whoever is elected, the conditions will remain the same and no improvement can be expected.” 

Traffic woes
“Chabukswar is a good man but he has not actively worked for the development of Pimpri. He lacks the ability to enforce and implement the plans,” said Anwar Shaikh, a resident of HA Colony in Pimpri. 

Shitole echoed a similar sentiment. “The Lal Topi Nagar is a mess. There is too much traffic congestion and senior citizens and children can hardly walk on the roads here. They need to widen the roads and shift the shops alongside the roads as well” he said.

Cleanliness ignored
Shaikh said another issue here is cleanliness which seems to have gone haywire in Chabukswar’s reign.

Kundu said, “There is no effect of Swachchta campaign in Pimpri. There are open dumping grounds in Ajmera Colony where pigs loiter around. Similar sites can be observed at several other places like Morwadi Chowk and Pimprigaon,” he said. 

Auto drivers’ ‘dadagiri’
Kundu added, “The autorickshaw drivers’ menace is another problem here. The ‘dadagiri’ of autorickshaw drivers is famous in Pimpri-Chinchwad. If I have to rate the current government, then they will score hardly 3 out of 10. I have zero expectations from these politicians. I don’t think anything would change, no matter who comes to power.”  

Devplopment work

• Smart City project
• Metro project

Pending problems

• Rehabilitation of slum residents
• Traffic management in different parts of Pimpri including Pimpri Camp
• Cleaning of Pavana river