The areas of Phursungi and Uruli Devachi, located along Pune-Saswad Road beyond Hadapsar, will finally be granted their own municipal council, following years of demands for a demerger. The state government has issued a final notification to exclude these areas from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits and establish the Phursungi-Uruli Devachi Municipal Council.
These two areas were among 11 villages merged into PMC limits in 2017. After the government sought suggestions and objections regarding the demerger proposal, the decision to exclude the areas was confirmed. The government has also appointed Purandar tehsildar, Vikram Rajput, as the administrator for the municipal council until it is formally constituted.
The proposal to create a separate municipal council for Phursungi and Uruli Devachi had been in progress since the previous year. A notification regarding the exclusion of these areas was issued by the state government in March 2023, though it was challenged in the Bombay High Court. Former Purandar MLA and Shiv Sena leader Vijay Shivtare, a close associate of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, had advocated for the demerger, arguing that the inclusion of Phursungi and Uruli Devachi within the PMC limits was not benefiting local residents.
The demerger proposal highlighted that residents were struggling to pay high property taxes to PMC, while the villages were not receiving adequate funds for infrastructure or development projects. Local citizens expressed frustration that, despite being part of PMC for the past seven years, they had seen little improvement in civic amenities or development.
Viraj Thorat, a local resident, explained that whether under PMC or a separate municipal council, residents wanted better roads and proper development. He added that water availability had been poor, with many parts of Phursungi and Uruli Devachi still lacking a proper water supply, and incomplete water supply schemes exacerbating the issue, especially with the growing population. Another resident, Amol Ghule, called for the government to ensure adequate funding for the newly formed council so that residents would finally receive better civic services and amenities.
