Pune: While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s total victory over the Congress in the recently-concluded civic polls has left it toothless, it has not stopped the beleaguered opposition from taking potshots at the saffron party.
On Wednesday, the Pune unit of the Congress targeted the BJP in a distinctly ‘off-beat’ manner over the city’s garbage crisis.
Congress workers poked senior BJP leader and Pune Guardian Minister Girish Bapat, who is away in Australia and conspicuous by his absence at the height of the garbage issue, by putting up big banners across the city asking him to ‘come back home’ now that the garbage issue was temporarily resolved.
The Congress’ poster wryly reads: “Dear Mr. Bapat, nobody will tell you anything nor will citizens be cross with you [for your absence during the crisis]…now that the garbage crisis is ended, we eagerly await your return to the city. The Mayor has returned, so you too, should come back.”
Both Mr. Bapat and the city’s newly-elected Mayor, BJP leader Mukta Tilak were away on foreign tours as the city and the residents of Uruli Devachi and Phursungi grappled with the garbage problem.
“Neither Bapat nor the city’s Mayor Mukta Tilak were present as Pune was grappling with its most severe garbage crisis in recent times. Hence, we have put up these banners at different points in the city to subtly protest against the absence of key decision- makers during Pune’s hour of need,” said Arvind Shinde, the Congress’ leader within the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
The garbage crisis in Pune ended last Sunday after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis formally met with the residents of Uruli Devachi and Phursungi villages and persuaded them to withdraw their three-week long agitation.
The crisis erupted after a after a fire broke out at the garbage depot at Uruli Devachi, the largest garbage processing utility, prompting villagers to stop the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) from dumping the city’s garbage in the villages.
The residents’ agitation over the grossly insanitary conditions caused by the PMC’s dumping in the twin villages led to a massive accumulation within Pune city, which presently generates an average 1700 tonnes of garbage each day. Nearly 500 tonnes of untreated waste was lying daily as a result of the stalemate.
The villages have been bearing the brunt of Pune’s indiscriminate urbanisation since the early 1990s. The methane emissions from the landfills have adversely affected the health of the villagers, who are forced to endure the ravages of water pollution as well.
