Sena-BJP eye special funds from state for roads

AURANGABAD: The ruling alliance of Shiv SenaBJP in the civic body is quite optimistic about receiving funds from the state government to build roads and other basic civic amenities in the city. The office-bearers at the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation are hopeful that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will announce some financial assistance to the body during the upcoming meeting of the state cabinet that is slated on October 4.
Mayor Trimbak Tupe, on Thursday, said that the government was aware of the financial condition of the civic body. "Let us hope that the civic body gets the much needed funds on October 4," he said.
BJP corporator and senior leader Bapu Ghadamode told TOI that the chief minister had recently assured to help the cash-strapped municipal body. In the recent meeting held in Mumbai, we highlighted the issue of shortage of funds that is affecting many road projects and the chief minister had promised to look into the matter. We believe that he will release some funds specially to build roads," he said.
Raju Vaidya, Shiv Sena group leader in AMC, told TOI that the office-bearers have already brought the pathetic condition of the city roads to chief minister's notice. "Apart from this, Aurangabad guardian ministers Ramdas Kadam is also aware of the ground realities and thus we firmly believe that the state government will take some positive steps for the development of the city," he said.
However, Vaidya also added that all the office bearers in the civic body will meet the chief minister again and urge him to release at least Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore for roads.
The office-bearers of the civic body have been demanding the state government to release funds for long.
Recently, the AMC office-bearers urged the government to provide special fund amounting to Rs 500 crore for developing the infrastructure in Satara and Devlaithe newly added villages in the AMC. However, the government released only Rs 24 crore in the last two years.