Another Thackeray man in Worli joins Shinde-led Sena

Mumbai: A former corporator Datta Narwankar, from ward no 197 in Worli, joined the Shiv Sena on Thursday in the presence of chief minister Eknath Shinde

Mumbai: A former corporator Datta Narwankar, from ward no 197 in Worli, joined the Shiv Sena on Thursday in the presence of chief minister Eknath Shinde. This is seen as a setback for Sena leader Aditya Thackeray, who represents Worli. At present, nine former corporators are in the Shinde camp.

HT Image

Narwankar said that he crossed over so that many developmental works in Worli could take shape. He also promised to make Shiv Sena stronger in Worli. Narwankar has been a corporator for only one term

Former mayor and Shiv Sena deputy leader Kishori Pednekar said, “All workers are happy. Datta never worked in cohesion with the local shakha. Hence, all Sainiks are happy. We will build a new team. Nearly 1,000 Sainiks are outside the shakha now and are pledging support to Uddhavji

Playgrounds to remain open for more hours

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday announced that all open public spaces like parks, playgrounds and recreational grounds will remain open for more hours.

BMC in its press statement said that looking at the response from people on using public spaces, these spaces will now remain open from 5am to 1pm and 3pm to 10pm on Monday to Friday and on weekends, it will remain open from 5am to 10pm.

The new timings should be displayed outside all the parks and grounds. Currently there are 255 parks, 432 recreation grounds and 318 playgrounds in Mumbai.

Patil’s faux paus

BJP MLC Ramesh Patil caused a major embarrassment to his party with his remarks that BJP had a washing powder like Nirma to cleanse politicians.

Patil was speaking in the legislative council on the state budget. He said, ``Someone was criticising that Bhushan Desai (son of former industries minister Subhash Desai had come to Shiv Sena because there was a file of ₹400 crore related to him.’’ Some opposition members had said that Bhushan Desai had joined because he was probed for an alleged scam.

``I don’t know what he did there. He will get justice with us. Someone said that he has come because of a file of ₹400 crore to us. He has not come because of that. He has come to us because our government is working and doing work. We have Nirma washing powder and it comes from Gujarat. Hence, we use it for cleansing a person who comes to us. Who comes to us will be cleansed,’’ said Patil.

The BJP has been facing nationwide criticism and Congress has been saying that BJP has a washing machine to cleanse tainted politicians who are admitted in BJP. Patil hails from Navi Mumbai and is a fishermen leader.