Maharashtra CM Abdul Rehman Antulay ignores his constituency

Antulay's homes in Ambet, the old one (left) and the new under construction: Grand promisesThe drive up from Bombay is exquisitely beautiful. But Ambet, the sleepy little riverside village where Abdul Rehman Antulay was born, is deceptive in its beauty. Little of the lush greenery comes from cultivation, for it is a village of near-subsistence farming, dependent on the monsoons for its single annual crop.As in the rest of Antulay's Srivardhan constituency there is no industry. The 3,000-strong populace has an under-used post office, a state transport bus stand which the Government now proposes to convert into a full-scale terminus, and link roads and electricity provided by previous governments. But the village itself shows neither the effects of Antulay's whirlwind fund-collection drives nor any visible alterations made since he came to power.Just outside the main village area, however, the first signs of a home-grown chief minister begin to manifest themselves. On a small hilltop overlooking the Savitri river construction activity is on in full swing. A twin-suite Public Works Department rest house, built when Antulay was a minister in V.P. Naik's government, is undergoing both a facelift and an extension.Once construction is complete, the remote little village will boast a rest house larger and more luxurious than that in Mhasla, the taluk headquarters. Mangaon, Mahad and Srivardhan, towns which circumscribe the Ambet area, all have smaller rest houses.A little further up the slope, perched on a choice location just above the river, Antulay's avant-garde bungalow is a beehive of activity. Cement and raw materials lie in huge stockpiles, and groups of construction workers maintain the feverish pace of construction with which they put up the structure in a little over three months.Striking Showpiece: Designed by Iftekar M. Kadri, the top-notch Bombay architect who has executed such prestigious structures as the Taj Mahal Hotel chain's Fort Aguada and Covelong beach resorts. the Shivsagar Estate and the elitist Swapnalok bungalows in Bombay's Worli and Napean Sea Road, Antulay's bungalow is obviously intended to be a show-piece for his constituents - a reminder of the little boy next door who made good in, the big, bad world.The house is built on two levels, like terraces clinging to slope leading down to the Savitri, its immaculate terraces and huge French windows looking out on a spectacular view of the river valley. Four bedrooms on the lower level, a drawing room, parlour, dining room and study go to make up the 4,000 square feet of living area in the opulent bungalow which will cost more than Rs 5 lakh when completed.An expert in complex architectural work of this kind, Kadri has been associated with a number of Antulay-sponsored schemes in the last few months, including the High-Powered Steering Committee for Slums in Bombay, and the Sethia Foundation hospital which has been proposed for Lonere-Ambarle.Although the project is obviously important to Kadri, who makes the four-hour trip from Bombay at regular intervals to supervise it, the architect refused to disclose the fees he is charging Antulay. "Do you ask a surgeon what he charged for an operation?" he asked rhetorically. "I am a professional, I can't tell you whether or not I am charging him any professional fees."While progress on Antulay's country home continues at a record pace, the grandiose development plans he has announced for the Srivardhan constituency have not been so fortunate. The first Maharashtra chief minister from the traditionally ignored Konkan, the state's most backward area, Antulay had declared that he would rapidly mount a development programme to bring it on par with the sugar growing regions.In fact, when he went to the polls last December, voters in Srivardhan were so bowled over by the prospect of having a chief minister from the area that they refused to allow any opposition leaders to campaign against him, and all his opponents lost their deposits.Said Vijay Khule, a zila parishad member of the Bharatjya Janata Party: "All of us supported him in the by-elections because we were so jubilant that there was finally going to be a chief minister who could solve the problems of Konkan. He made hundreds of promises then and later, but there has been no implementation worth its name. We don't even feel as though we have a chief minister from our area, he has ignored us so badly.Broken Promises: Although he has consistently followed the populist policy of combining government doles with grand promises of development and upliftment, Antulay's stock in his own constituency is astonishingly low. The schools, hospitals and infrastructural improvements he had promised his voters have in many cases not even materialised on paper.Ambarle-Lonere, a huge university, which was to include an agricultural college, a technical college, a medical college and hospital, a polytechnic and an airtield, is being vigorously criticised by Antulay's constituents themselves, because of his ham-handed methods of land acquisition.Entire villages were arbitrarily selected for takeover by the Government, and residents claim that the flamboyant chief minister had repeatedly promised them a remunerative price for acquisition - and then systematically broken each assurance.A committee get up to decide fair terms for acquiring the land had to be disbanded after every sarpanch and zila parishad member on it resigned last month. Said Datta Kachalakar, a villager who has received a notice of acquisition: "This man has lied to us at every public meeting or discussion. We will not let him touch an acre of our land unless he fulfils his promises."Disillusioned with both Antulay and the legislators who locals claim behave like "mini-Antulays" in the area, villagers in the Ambarle-Lonere project area are now questioning the very need for these facilities.An airstrip, claims Khule, can only be of use to Antulay and the controversial trustees of the Sethia Foundation; the technical college is written off as too premature for an area which lacks even basic educational facilities; and the hospital, which Nirmal Sethia's trust was to provide, a pipe-dream unlikely to see the light of day after last fortnight's revelations.For Antulay's constituents, the disclosures about his money-grabbing fund-raising techniques were probably the last straw, Barring Ambet, where he was hotly defended and Shalini Patil accused of betraying him, residents of virtually every surrounding village openly air their grievances. At the 'Janata Tea Stall' in Nandavi, only 5 km from Ambet, a group of farmers listed the unfulfilled assurances of the past year.Said a shopkeeper who was fearful of disclosing his name: "Life in this place has not changed at all since Antulay sahib has come. We do not see any signs of the moves he said he would make. The only thing which we do see is the big palace he has built for himself after collecting all these funds."Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 12, 2013 15:15 IST--- ENDS ---

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Maharashtra CM Abdul Rehman Antulay ignores his constituency

The drive up from Bombay is exquisitely beautiful. But Ambet, the sleepy little riverside village where Abdul Rehman Antulay was born, is deceptive in its beauty.

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