Pune, Jul 15: The BJP which controls the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Wednesday took objection to the Maharashtra government's decision to appoint the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) as a special planning authority for 23 villages which were recently merged in the city limits.

Mayor Murlidhar Mohol said the state government has issued a notification informing that the "development plan" (DP) of these 23 villages will be prepared by the PMRDA, and claimed that this was illegal.

"The state government has included all these villages in PMC limits in haste. If the government wanted to prepare the DP through the PMRDA, it could have done it before merging them in city limits," he said. The PMRDA comes under the state government, currently controlled by a coalition of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress.

Mohol said once these fringe villages were brought under PMC limits, it is the responsibility of the PMC to prepare a development plan for them. "I feel the villages were included in the city limits hurriedly keeping the civic elections (slated for the next year) in mind but now the DP will be done by the PMRDA. This is double standard," he said.

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