After the new year began for Pune with an extensive city-wide beautification drive, the city is back to normal with dug-up roads, garbage, and disappearing flower beds. The city hosted G-20’s first Infrastructure Working Group Meeting on 16th-17th January 2023. A budget of Rs. 45 crores were approved by the state government for the beautification and concretization of the city. The route from the airport to Senapati Bapat Road, to be used by the delegates, was cleaned, repaired, painted, and over 4000 trees were planted on the route. Punekars who were surprised at the beautification drive were quick to be disappointed as garbage returned to the streets, the roads were being dug-up again, and the plants and flowers placed to welcome the delegates were removed barely a week after the G-20 summit by the civic authorities, according to Hindustan Times. “The flowering plants on SB Road are being pulled out; every morning, I see less of them and more of mud spilled on the road,” a Senapati Bapat Road resident said. The Chief Garden Superintendent, PMC, did not respond to requests for comments. Digging was also back on the roads. SB Road residents expressed their shock as the cycle track made before the arrival of the delegates was dug up merely days after the summit. The cycle track near the Symbiosis Campus is also being used as a parking spot. The Head of the Road Department, PMC, refused to comment. Despite efforts to make the G-20 route more presentable, locals in other areas of the city complained of being neglected. The beautification drives also meant that slums were covered behind white curtains. “Other areas of the city were overlooked during the past two months. Several issues, including fixing potholes, shutting off the water supply every Thursday, unlawful construction, waste dumping, and walkways being overtaken by various encroachments, were willfully overlooked, or reversed,” a Nagar Road resident said.
10 Jan 2023
Atharv Unhale
