Aurangabad: The general body meeting of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Wednesday discussed the construction of roads from the Rs125 crore that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced earlier this month.The CM’s announcement was made during a programme to mark the inauguration of Rs100 crore roads that he had already provided about one-and-a-half years ago.Mayor Nandu Ghodele took up the issue while many corporators participated in the discussion, seeking to spend new funds on the construction of roads in their respective areas.The chief minister had announced an additional Rs125 crore funds for the road development in the city on January 3. Incidentally, a year and half ago, the AMC had received Rs100 crore for road development. The state government had earlier provided Rs24 crore for the same purpose.Now, with the CM’s announcement, the total funds for the road development in the city from the state government comes to around Rs250 crore. The civic body has not yet reached a conclusion as to which roads were to be preferred, amid allegations from the MIM that Muslim areas were ignored in the Rs100 crore works. It was due to the demand raised by MLA Imtiyaz Jaleel that the CM announced a further Rs125 crore assistance for roads, claimed opposition leader Zameer Qadri.Qadri also said that earlier, apart from Rs100 crore, the civic body had announced Rs50 crore for roads under the deferred payment scheme, according to which the amount was to be paid to the contractor at a later date, in phases. He said that since the civic body’s condition was not sound, no contractor was willing to come forward and start the work. So the demand has been made to the administration to carry out those works from the Rs125 crore funds.Corporator stages protest: Meanwhile, Balkrishnanagar residents led by their corporator Jyoti Rajaram More staged demonstrations in front of the civic body demanding that the authorities keep their promise of completing the drinking water supply works in their area. While staging demonstrations, the activists smashed earthen water containers in front of the civic body to register their anger against the AMC’s apathy.More claimed that more than 80% of the residents in the ward had paid the gunthewari charges. The civic body has even issued a work order but the concerned contractor could not carry out the work, citing different reasons. More said that they have been demanding this facility for the last 25 years and have made representations to the concerned authorities from time to time, trying to draw their attention toward the dire need of the residents. However, the AMC kept on ignoring the demands.He also said the mayor has promised to look into the matter and start the work within 15 days. “We have made it clear to the mayor that if the civic body fails to start the work in 15 days then the residents will resort to a hunger strike,” said corporator Jyoti More.

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