The committee's meeting which was hastily adjourned today due to lack of quorum had an incensed leader of the house in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and senior PVA leader Chandrakant Chhajed trading charges with municipal secretary Ramdas Jagtap, leading to a heated discussion. Chhajed alleged that Jagtap had purposely adjourned the meeting when it had not even started and termed the adjournment illegal. The meeting which was scheduled to start at 4 p.m. was adjourned a minute later. Chhajed wondered that never in the history of the PMC any meeting had been adjourned so fast and alleged that procedural rules had not been followed.

However, Jagtap insisted that vice-chairman Mohan Kamble (PVA) pointed out the minimal attendance following which the meeting was adjourned. Even as Vilas Wadekar (one of the members) was present, he was technically not part of the meeting as he had not signed the muster roll.

Rashid Shaikh, chairman of the committee (PVA) told media persons that the members had wanted to re-start the meeting and notified Jagtap of their willingness. However, Jagtap said it was not possible to issue notices of the meeting on the same day. Even as Chhajed and Shaikh categorically stated that they would approve the proposal at tomorrow's meeting, political circles were rife with speculation that the PVA members had been pressurised to change their stand as the BJP- its alliance partner in the PMC would not lend support to the crucial elections of the PMT chairman's post scheduled on December 11.

The 13-member committee has four PVA members, two BJP- two Shiv Sena, one-RPI and four Congress members. Last week the decision on the proposal had been stalled as PVA and Congress had raised queries on the hurried manner in which the approval had been sought. They had insisted on a detailed proposal listing the cost estimates for the expenditure to be borne by the PMC for shifting of service lines, including water, sewerage, telephones and electric cables. While Chhajed denied that there was any pressure from their alliance partner, he justified the sudden turnaround on the PVA's part as taking into account the interests of the people at large.