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Covid-19 spike sparks MVA vs BJP blame game over funds for Pune
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is ruling in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), as well as Centre, blamed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) for not allotting funds to the city to deal with the crisis.
As Pune city’s positive Covid-19 cases continue to rise, political blame game continued over the grants allocated to the city by the state and central governments to deal with the crisis.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is ruling in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), as well as Centre, blamed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) for not allotting funds to the city to deal with the crisis.
Jagdish Mohol, BJP state unit president, said, “PMC had spent more than Rs200 crore during the ongoing Covid-19 crises in the city, but the state government has given only Rs3 crore till date. As the BJP is in power in PMC, the state government is intentionally not giving funds to Pune city.”
“Instead of classifying over the corporation’s grade, the state government should consider the criteria of positive patients in the municipal corporation while issuing the funds,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Deepali Dhumal who is also opposition party leader in PMC has criticised the BJP government over the issue.
Dhumal said, “BJP city unit president should raise the same question to the Central government.”
“BJP leaders from PMC donated their salary to the Prime Minister’s fund, then also the central government did not give any sizable grants to the city. BJP has six MLAs and MPs in the city. They should ask the central government for help here,” said Dhumal.
Dhumal said, “Maharashtra government has released GST grant which is more than Rs600 crore. During the BJP’s tenure at the state level, the government had reduced the GST share of the city.”
“Earlier it was Rs140 crore per month, but the state government increased it to Rs152 crore per month, which the state has released for April, May, June,” said Dhumal.
The progressive positive count of the city is 37,386, while the death count is 976 as of Sunday.
