Residents oppose sewage treatment plant site, demand civic improvements in Kolhapur Wards 11, 12, 18, 19, 20

Kolhapur: Residents of the SSC Board, Varsha Nagar and Subhash Nagar areas from Ward 18 say their nights have become sleepless since the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation commenced work to set up a sewage treatment plant with funds of Rs 44 crore at Varsha Nagar. Residents and a former corporator opposed the STP site location, citing adverse effects on citizens' health. The opposition reached a level where citizens planned to file a writ petition in the Bombay high court against KMC and the contractor.Pravin Bane, a local resident, said, "KMC is setting up this plant at the site reserved for the vegetable market. We are not opposing the STP project, we are opposing its location in the urban area as it will have an impact on the health of the people. This sewage treatment plant project will spread a foul smell in the area and pollute the environment."While the candidates in the fray have given several assurances through their to do list and manifestos, residents of these wards said they would elect their corporator depending upon their ability to resolve long pending issues.Wards 11 and 12 largely consisted of the old Kolhapur city with narrow lanes, with traffic congestion and encroachments. Lack of parking spaces remains a major concern here. CPR Hospital, Mahalaxmi temple, Laxmipuri, Khasbaug maidan and New Mahadwar road areas witness a heavy daily footfall of around 1 lakh floating population arriving in the city across the year, resulting in traffic congestion and parking problems.Wards 18, 19 and 20 represent rapidly expanding areas of the city with issues such as garbage, poor roads, health and sanitation, absence of primary health care centres and irregularities in water supply.For Ismail Maner, a resident of Laxmipuri, solving the parking issue, traffic congestion, controlling the stray cattle count and everyday clean-up of garbage piled in large quantity is expected from the newly elected corporator. "There are chilli market, wholesale grain and grocery market and a big vegetable market located in Laxmipuri , and people from across the district come here for their monthly purchases. Due to narrow roads and encroachments, frequent traffic congestion leading to day-long honking has become a headache for us. With the area being a commercial space, garbage piles up in large quantities every day, but KMC fails in its proper collection."Residents of Wards 19 and 20 said they feel neglected. Suburban residents allege that KMC has not paid attention to their demands. Though the ring roads were in good condition, the internal road network in these wards is in a pathetic state.Sarita Kumbhar, a resident of Surve Nagar, said, "The drainage network in our sub-urban areas is extremely poor. As the area is vast, garbage clean-up doesn't take place routinely. We have to store garbage for three days in our home as the garbage pickup vehicles arrived once every three days. The internal roads give off-road experience to the residents and haven't been restored in years."