Aurangabad, Oct 28:
The regularising of properties under the Gunthewari Act has become a talk of the city, especially the political circle. BJP has accused the Shiv Sena, the guardian minister and the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator of forcibly recovering tax money. The accusation has brought the internal conflict in the BJP camp to light. On the other hand, former Shiv Sena corporators, who could not voice against their party in the issue, are thanking BJP for exposing the agenda of civic administration in the name of implementing the Gunthewari case.
According to BJP's one group, the city party president has held a press conference two days ago. Instead of targetting Sena, he trained his gun on the AMC administrator. The rough draft on the formation of new prabhags is being done under the supervision of the administrator. Hence this allegation could prove dearer to the BJP. There is a dire need to critically analyze the stringent rules framed by the government regarding Gunthewari Act. Hence one BJP group is disappointed. On other hand, the majority of the Shiv Sena's corporators are elected from Gunthewari localities. They expressed their opinions before BJP office-bearers and extended their support to the morcha. It is learnt that BJP's many office-bearers, former corporators are also on the AMC administration's side. Now, everybody is curious to know will the internal alliance between Sena and BJP will help resolve their issues.
It may be noted that BJP has taken up the Gunthewari issue for the past two days. Its delegation met the commissioner of police (CP) on Wednesday. They also met the AMC administrator and demanded to grant relaxation in Gunthewari localities. Meanwhile, the Sena has also made a critical comment on BJP. They also held a meeting about Gunthewari on Wednesday evening.
Maximum wards in Gunthewari areas
On the basis of the updated city's population, there is a possibility of forming 126 to 130 wards within the AMC limit. Hence the increase of wards would be mostly from the densely populated Gunthewari areas. It is being hinted that there would be 15 prabhags comprising 45 wards from the Gunthewari localities. It may be noted that the areas falling under Gunthewari Act started to come up in the city since the 1990s. Presently, there are around 174 Gunthewari areas comprising 2 lakh properties. The estimated population of citizens staying in these localities is between 8-10 lakh. The residents in these areas are mostly from the low-income groups (LIG) and the medium-income groups (MIG).