Congress claims to win 80 seats

Pune, Jan 23 (UNI) The Congress today claimed that it would sweep the polls to the Civic bodies and win 80 of the 144 seats of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections, which will be held on February 1.

Releasing a 20 point programme for the city development, City MP Suresh Kalmadi said that Slum Rehabilitation Programme, Infrastructure like Roads, Sky buses, and a Metro apart from better education facilites were on the party's agenda to make Pune, a world class city. He said that funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for around 20,000 slums have already been received. Under the SRA and the JNNURM programme around one lakh pucca houses will be made and given to the slum dwellers, he said.

Mr Kalmadi said more employment opportunities for the youth will be created. He remarked that in the last 3-4 years, there has been a reversal in brain drain. Around 10 lakh people will be arriving in the city in a few years for which infrastructure and arrangements have to be made now.

He added that by June, Gas pipeline for domestic use and CNG would also be available. Lashing out at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and particulary 'Ajit Sena', he said that this party would not even get seats in double digits and blamed it for stalling developmental works in the city.

UNI