Employees and residents of Pune’s Hinjewadi IT Park area will proceed with a protest on Sunday, September 6, after a government meeting failed to produce a concrete resolution to long-standing infrastructure problems, according to a report by Loksatta – Pune.
The protest concerns the condition of roads, traffic management, water supply, electricity and waste management in Hinjewadi, Maan and Marunji, areas that include the Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park and its surrounding residential settlements. Representatives of information technology employees and local residents attended a joint meeting convened by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar and government agencies.
The meeting announced the formation of a special task force under the chairmanship of the district collector to address the pending issues in and around the IT park. The task force’s first meeting was scheduled for September 4, the report said.
Pawar said a concrete action plan would be prepared for roads, traffic, water, electricity, waste management and metro-related issues in the Hinjewadi area. She also said the plan would include time-bound implementation, taking into account the area’s future requirements.
The Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority has prepared a development plan estimated at Rs 426 crore for the area, according to the report. Pawar is expected to request that the chief minister convene an urgent meeting to accelerate implementation of the plan.
Despite the government’s announcements, employee and resident groups said they would not withdraw the protest. Pawan Jit Mane, president of the Forum for IT Employees, said several meetings had been held over the years and followed by assurances, but implementation had not taken place. The group has asked the deputy chief minister and the district collector to visit the protest site on Sunday, discuss the issues with employees and residents, and announce a solution.
Gyanendra Hulsure, president of the Hinjewadi Employees and Residents Trust, described the meeting organised by Pawar and MLA Shankar Mandekar as positive but said employees feared that the process would once again return to the starting point. That concern, he said, was the reason the group remained committed to the protest.
The planned action places pressure on the administration to move from interdepartmental meetings to a defined implementation schedule for the infrastructure plan. The next developments will include the task force’s first meeting and the protest scheduled for Sunday, September 6.
