Pune:
Calling himself the second Anna Hazare, former corporator Nitin Jagtap has threatened self-immolation because the corruption cases filed by him have not been taken up. Jagtap also says he has spent all his savings in his fight against corruption and is now left with nothing to live on.
Claiming to have spent Rs 40 lakh on exposing several government officials, he says he has revealed 35 cases of corruption by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials. And now Jagtap says he has decided to end his life at the Congress Bhawan in Shivajinagar.
"I am yet to see any justice. No hearing was conducted in any of the cases filed by me. I have no money and am facing financial problems. Being a non-corrupt person, I can't even ask anybody for money," he said. "I took the decision to commit suicide only because I am unable to pursue my own cases of corruption against the corrupt officials."
Jagtap, who is from the Congress, resigned as a corporator when the CBI arrested city Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi on April 25 for his alleged involvement in the Commonwealth Games scam. "I resigned only because Kalmadi gave me a chance to contest the election from Chatushrungi ward," he said. After resigning, Jagtap contested the by-election from the same ward in May as a Congress candidate, but was defeated by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Yusuf Pathan.
Jagtap once created a sensation during a General Body meeting by accusing two PMC officials from the water supply department of indulging in rampant corruption. The water supply officials were stunned by the behavior of Jagtap and staged a walkout in protest against Jagtap's allegations. Jagtap had also run an anti-corruption cell as a corporator of the NCP in 2002.
After Vishwas Chavan, a resident of Gokhalenagar, filed a petition in the Bombay High Court last month urging it to direct the PMC to cancel the corporatorship of Jagtap, the court directed the municipal commissioner to table a say on the civic administration's failure to disqualify Jagtap. In his petition, Chavan stated that Jagtap had stalled road construction work in Gokhalenagar and prevented civic staff from demolishing an illegal construction on June 4, 2002.
Abhay Chhajed, president, City Congress Committee, said: "We have already stopped taking Jagtap seriously. He had queries about everybody and we can't change his mind set. He does not listen to anybody, as I had also warned him many times over his behavior. Please don't take him seriously."