Minister “ashamed” of state’s roads

The minister, who travelled via Surat to Nandurbar to hoist the tricolour on Independence Day, was shocked to see the state of the roads after entering the tribal district from the Maharashtra-Gujarat borde

A video of two children in Nashik district complaining in a mock TV interview about huge potholes on the road between their house and school recently went viral, prompting the authorities to rush in for some damage control. Beyond this specific instance, the condition of the roads in North Maharashtra seems to be really bad, as medical education minister Hasan Mushrif discovered. The minister, who travelled via Surat to Nandurbar to hoist the tricolour on Independence Day, was shocked to see the state of the roads after entering the tribal district from the Maharashtra-Gujarat border. “I felt ashamed,” he told media persons in visible annoyance.

Minister “ashamed” of state’s roads

Mushrif also expressed unhappiness with the local elected representatives. “If the roads are so bad and the elected representatives are not paying attention, what kind of development would be happening in the district?” he fumed. The minister has now told the district collector to ensure that the quality of roads is maintained. The question is: can Mushrif or his colleagues find a solution to the real problem behind the poor quality of roads?

Power games in the NCP

There appears to be no let-up in the power tussle within the NCP. It is no longer a secret that party chief Sunetra Pawar and her son, MP Parth Pawar, wanted to replace state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare with someone of their choice. Even political strategist Prashant Kishor, who is advising them, seems to have insisted that a new state unit chief be appointed in place of Tatkare. While the mother-son duo realise that this may not be easy, and have decided to tread slowly on that front, they have begun taking control of the party organisation in a step-by-step manner by putting people of their choice in key positions.

In the past few weeks, Vaishali Nagawade has been appointed as the state NCP women’s wing chief, Nikhil Thakre as the youth wing chief and Nirmla Navale as chief of the young women’s wing. Legislator Zeeshan Siddique is likely to be chosen as the party’s Mumbai unit chief. According to party insiders, none of the seniors with whom Parth has problems were consulted while making the appointments. The insiders say that some more appointments will follow in the coming days.

The Tatkare camp is yet to react to these developments. Significantly, the Sunetra-Parth camp has not revised the national executive committee as discussed with the seniors, following the showdown between both sides some months ago. The tussle is unlikely to end soon, considering that Parth recently told some people in an informal chat that Tatkare would have to go sooner or later.

Prithviraj Chavan’s revelation

Former CM Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday claimed that the late Gopinath Munde, BJP leader and former deputy CM, was in talks with the Congress to join the party. According to Chavan, this happened during his tenure as CM from 2010 to 2014. The then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had agreed, and Munde was ready to resign as Beed MP and join the party. However, the deal did not progress, as it included making Munde a union minister immediately, which was not possible. Subsequently, he became a union minister in PM Modi’s first cabinet but died in a car accident in June 2014, just eight days after the government was formed.

What Chavan claimed was not unheard in political circles. While BJP leaders ridiculed his revelation, Munde’s daughter and environment minister Pankaja Munde said her father was no more and therefore it was inappropriate to rake up something like this. Chavan, meanwhile, stands firm on his claims.

Jackfruit entrepreneur Pawar introduced to Modi

The wedding reception of Supriya Sule’s daughter, Revati, held in New Delhi last Monday, was attended by the who’s who in the capital, including PM Narendra Modi and union home minister Amit Shah. Curiosity was aroused when Pawar introduced a youngster to Modi, who was then seen telling the PM something. It turned out that he was Mithilesh Desai, a jackfruit entrepreneur from Konkan. Desai runs Jackfruit King Agro, a company that does jackfruit-processing and has also done significant research on the byproducts that can be derived from the fruit. Desai later told journalists that he had told the PM about the jackfruit’s various products and how the country’s jackfruit trade could reach $2 billion with significant revenue from exports. Modi asked him several questions related to the issue, he said. Desai now hopes that jackfruit-processing as well as research on the fruit will get a boost.