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CM to visit city today as state, Centre’s focus shifts to Pune
This will be Thackeray’s first visit to Pune after the Covid-19 outbreak started on March 9.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will visit Pune on Thursday to take a review of the city’s Covid-19 preparedness.
In Pune, Thackeray will conduct a review meeting with district administration and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials. He is also likely to interact with public representatives from all parties before returning to Mumbai in the evening. This will be Thackeray’s first visit to Pune after the Covid-19 outbreak started on March 9. The city’s Covid-19 infection graph is on the rise with 53,577 cases while the death toll stands at 1,215 as of July 28.
Earlier, the chief minister concentrated on Mumbai while coordinating about the rest of Maharashtra through meetings via video conferencing, according to opposition party leaders. Thackeray visited Konkan after Nisarga cyclone hit the Maharashtra coastline and also performed the Ashadhi Ekadashi puja in Pandharpur. However, there was no visit scheduled for Pune, even though the city has been facing a shortage of ICU beds amid the rising cases. As Thackeray avoided visiting Pune, opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis and Shivajinagar legislator Siddharth Shirole criticised the chief minister for neglecting the city in the hour of crisis.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit chief Chandrakant Patil said, “The state has got two CMs, with one only sitting at Matoshree - Thackeray’s official residence – and the other (without naming Ajit Pawar) visiting other parts of the state.”
Besides the CM’s visit, the central team led by Kunal Kumar has also arrived in Pune. The team suggested measures to the district administration to bring down Pune’s case fatality rate, which is currently at 2.38%. “We have suggested the administration some measures to bring down the case fatality rate. There are suggestions to install close circuit television (CCTV) camera in hospitals and follow ICMR protocol while treating patients,” said Kumar.
To take a stock of the situation in Pune, Union minister Prakash Javadekar held a meeting with deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and others on Tuesday through video conferencing. During the meeting, Javadekar promised 100 ventilators to the city. These ventilators will be in addition to the 21 ventilators that PMC has received from the Centre.
