Govt spent over ₹25 crore on Maha Bhushan event

The Maharashtra Bhushan award ceremony cost over ?25 crore due to spending by multiple agencies, including ?13.63 crore on publicity and ?7 crore on road repairs. 14 people died due to heatstroke.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Bhushan award ceremony, which saw 14 heatstroke deaths on account of attendees being made to sit in the scorching heat for hours, cost the government exchequer a whopping ₹25 crore-plus. All the previous award ceremonies had cost less than a crore, said an official from the cultural affairs department, which was the nodal organisation agency of the event.

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The Shinde-Fadnavis government spent ₹13.63 crore on publicising the event through billboards, highway hoardings in Navi Mumbai and Raigad and print and electronic media advertisements, while at least six other agencies spent over ₹12 crore on roads, water supply, logistics and health services among other heads.

Although the nodal organising agency the cultural affairs department, the state government had appointed 35 sub-committees to make it a grand show. The committees, headed by the divisional commissioner of Konkan division, had officials from various departments, including public works, rural development, the Panvel municipal corporation, CIDCO and the collectorate of Raigad district, apart from various divisions of the police.

“The public works department spent ₹7 crore on the repairs and upkeep of the roads ahead of the function,” said an official from the collectorate. “The Navi Mumbai and Panvel municipal corporations and CIDCO spent a huge amount on water supply, road repairs and sewage-sanitation management. The district collectorate had activated the disaster management plan as protocol, keeping the expected size of the crowd in mind. They are estimated to have spent a few crore on these arrangements.”

The cultural department official added that the erection of the stage, logistics provided to the chief guests and special invitees and their arrangements was the responsibility of the cultural department. “Adding up the expenditure by all the departments, the spend was over ₹25 crore,” he said, adding that the department had issued only 3,000 invitation cards officially. “The other attendees were followers of the awardee, and it was mainly the responsibility of the organisation to keep the numbers in check,” he said.