Local BJP leaders issued an ultimatum to Shiv Sena activists that it would formally petition Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to dismiss the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) if the Sena did not take the garbage issue seriously, on Friday.
The BJP leaders were responding to the Sena activists’ protest against the chief minister’s recent warning to dismiss the AMC on Thursday when they emptied three trucks full of wet garbage in front of the Collectorate premises as a symbollic gesture.
Sena leaders submitted a representation to the Additional Collector stating that the party had been “anguished” over the chief minister’s threat, adding that it was the task of the government-appointed committee for garbage crisis to remedy the issue.
“If the Sena stops indulging in a blame game and wills itself to act, then the garbage crisis can be resolved in less than two months. But they do not appear to be interested in the problem,” Kishanchand Tanwani, the BJP’s Aurangabad city chief said.
Mr. Tanwani said that if the Sena failed to remedy the situation within eight days, a delegation of local BJP leaders would call upon Mr. Fadnavis and urge him to dissolve the civic body.
Both parties have an alliance in the AMC, however, the civic body has a Shiv Sena Mayor.
“All civic problems have to be equally sorted out between the Sena and the BJP. They (the BJP) must keep up a spirit of cooperation. What is the point of playing politics over garbage?” said Sena leader and AMC Mayor, Nandkumar Ghodele.
In March, the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court prohibited the civic body from dumping garbage in the Naregaon landfill – the city’s dumping spot for the past forty years.
This prompted the AMC to seek alternative dumping zones like Padegaon-Mitmita, which provoked angry protests from locals where more than 20 policemen were injured, several vehicles including police vans, garbage trucks, state transport buses and private buses were severely damaged on March 6. The consequent police crackdown on Padegaon-Mitmita locals caused a furore in the State legislature. The intensity of the clash caused the Aurangabad-Mumbai highway to be blocked for several hours.
