Thane: Poor infra, super-rich netas
Thane has come a long way to be now ruled by the right-wing BJP and Shiv Sena. The humongous Thane district comprises of three parliamentary constituencies, mainly Thane, Kalyan and Bhiwandi, each having six Assembly seats.
All the six seats of Thane have a different geography, diverse demography and a complex set of problems, ranging from overburdened public transport, poor public healthcare. In addition it has high number of unapproved colleges, encroachment of forests and mangroves, rampant, illegal construction and sand-mining, which has led to extensive industrial pollution. Living in Thane is no more affordable with the mounting property prices.
However, the one thing Thane can boast is, its super rich netas. The combined wealth of the 12 major candidates in six constituencies, is over Rs380 crore, according to the affidavits filed with their nomination forms.
Pratap Sarnaik- sitting Sena member of legislative assembly (MLA) from Ovala Majiwada, is the richest of them all. With stakes in the real estate and hospitality sectors, Sarnaik and his corporator wife own assets (movable and immovable) worth Rs230 crore.
Sarnaik is followed by BJP’s sitting MLA Narendra Mehta with Rs62 crore worth of assets, along with his wife and dependent kids. He is pitted against Muzaffar Hussain of the Congress, from at Mira-Bhayandar. Hussain has Rs31 crore worth of assets, along with wife.
Manda Mhatre, the sitting BJP MLA from Belapur, with husband, has assets worth Rs25 crore. Her opponent Ashok Gawde of NCP owns 1/5th of what Mhatres has.
Sena minister Eknath Shinde (Kopri-Panchpakhadi) and BJP candidates Ganesh Naik (Airoli) and Sanjay Kelkar (Thane city) have assets in the range of Rs4-12 crore.
“While netas are busy accumulating wealth by grabbing land, getting into real estate business and infrastructure projects, Thane sweats out to keep pace with the rising population despite being on the list of smart cities,” senior journalist Santosh Pradhan said.
Thane was ranked 57 in the central government’s ranking of 100 smart cities for speedy implementation of projects.
Ambitious projects, such as cluster development of slums and a Rs9,000 crore tunnel connecting Sanjay Gandhi National Park to Thane and Borivali, which was announced four years ago, are still stuck.
“The facilities at the two public hospitals in Thane and Kalwa are poorlyequipped to handle serious cases, often referred to Mumbai hospitals. Eknath Shinde has failed to upgrade them despite being the health minister. What’s worse is Sena is in power from the corporation to the Centre,” rues a resident, Milind Gaikwad.