BJP takes on Shiv Sena over potholes on Mumbai roads
As the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation near, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has stepped up its attack against Shiv Sena, now over the potholes on roads in Mumbai and other cities of the state
As the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation near, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has stepped up its attack against Shiv Sena, now over the potholes on roads in Mumbai and other cities of the state. The BJP has also questioned if the warning of action against the errant contractors was hogwash and accused that the mayor of Mumbai was giving false figures of potholes to facilitate the contractors.
BJP leader and former minister Ashish Shelar, while speaking to the media on Thursday, questioned over the disparity in claims by BMC administration and the mayor. “Mayor has been claiming that they fixed 42,000 potholes, while the civic body portal says, to have fixed 927 potholes. Why has been Sena shielding the contractors? The CM has been warning of the action against the contractors. Has the Sena-led civic body taken action against any contractor, holding him responsible? The BMC has spent Rs21,000 crore in last 25 years on road construction and repairs. The contractors have made a bomb out of it, but the city roads have gone to the dogs,” he said.
CM Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting of related departments and state entities and warned to take action against the contractors responsible. Shelar has termed the meeting hogwash. “Neither action was taken against any contractors, nor a probe was announced to check the material used to construct the roads. He did not even invite all agencies responsible for the road construction to the meeting. The meeting was just a hogwash, but it could not resolve the real problem,” he said.
Shelar also took a dig at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule, reminding her about her “selfie with potholes” drive during the BJP-led government in the state. Shelar questioned why the NCP MP has disappeared and why is she not taking up the issue again. Party has also made an appeal to the people in Mumbai to participate in their protest against potholes by clicking pictures of potholes and send them for the exhibition announced by the party.
Taking a leaf out of Sule’s book, the party’s south-central district ward has organised a competition “Selfie With Potholes”. “We have received good response from the citizens in Mumbai to the competition. We will hold an exhibition in our office at BMC and will award the best selfies. The exhibition will be taken to various parts of the city as a bid to make way to plight of the people. The potholes on the city roads is just because of the corruption in the road construction and it is the failure of the civic body ruled for more than three decades by Shiv Sena,” said Rajesh Shirwadkar, district president of the ward.
Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar on Wednesday had said that BMC officials have been directed to fill all potholes by the end of October. Pednekar had also said that engineers have been directed to report, in case of any problem with filling of potholes. Additionally, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has also asked BMC officials to fill all potholes in the city within next 2-3 weeks.