Ever since controversy surfaced over Ajit Pawar "reprimanding" IPS officer Anjana Krishna, he had been avoiding the media. (Credit: X/@AjitPawarSpeaks)
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who has been avoiding the media since the controversy over him “reprimanding” IPS officer Anjana Krishna last week, surfaced in Pune on Sunday. Flanked by PMC Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram and District Collector Jitendra Dudi, Pawar held a press conference which was described in political circles as the “first of its kind” as he is generally surrounded by political leaders during interactions with the media.
He held the press conference after he held a jansamvad event organised by his party at Hadapsar in the city.
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Taking a jibe at the media, Ajit Pawar said, “Instead of showing my work, you people highlight things which need not be shown, but you are interested in showing it… You people keep raking it up again and again. You can ask all officers about how I have behaved with them over the last 35 years that I have been in this field.”
When asked about the Anjana Krishna controversy, thrice Ajit Pawar said, “I have no comments to offer about the issue.”
The Deputy Chief Minister again emphasised, “I don’t want to speak about it… Since morning, we are all working here… We didn’t even have tea. Instead of focusing on this, something else is being discussed.”
When journalists persisted, Ajit Pawar said, “I have given my clarification on the matter… I have also tweeted about it… Even the Chief Minister has said that ‘Ajit Pawar has cleared his stand on the issue’. The Chief Minister has taken note of it.”
Ever since controversy surfaced over Ajit Pawar “reprimanding” IPS officer Anjana Krishna for her taking action against individuals indulging in illegal sand mining, he had been avoiding the media. He issued a clarification after this, claiming he had no intention to interfere with law enforcement and that he had the highest regard for the police force.
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Reacting to Ajit Pawar’s conference, AAP spokesperson Mukund Kirdat said, “This kind of a press conference, where IAS officers are flanking Ajit Pawar, seems to be a first of its kind. Normally, his party leaders are seen crowding around him… Today, he was much softer, like he was during the Assembly elections. People of Maharashtra want Ajit Pawar to be a toned down version of himself and get things done from officers as per the rule book. Ajit Pawar should learn lessons from his outbursts, which are landing him in unnecessary trouble.”
The NCP on Sunday held a jansamvad event in Hadapsar which was attended by Ajit Pawar and PMC and district officials. NCP sources said following the incident with Ajit Pawar last week, the matter was upfront at the jansamvad.
The NCP claimed Ajit Pawar heard as many as 4,000 complaints from citizens.
“The jansamvad campaign at Hadapsar — a unique initiative which brought civic bureaucracy directly to citizens with the help of new age technologies like WhatsApp chatbots, digital kiosks and missed call numbers — was launched by the Deputy Chief Minister. The transparent grievance redressal program on such a massive scale aided hundreds of complainants with easy access to reach bureaucracy directly with the technology driven system of registering problems, Ajit Pawar forwarding issues to departments, maintaining data, creating solutions through active coordination with government departments, and follow-up mechanisms,” the NCP claimed in a press release.
The campaign is backed by months of surveys and ground-level feedback, seeks to bridge persistent gaps in civic services and departmental functioning. Designed as a structured grievance redressal platform, Jansamvad provided transparency, accountability, and on-the-spot resolutions, the NCP said.
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“At the Hadapsar event, 30 government departments participated alongside Ajit Pawar to address citizens’ concerns. More than 4,000 complaints were registered, of which over 1,500 were resolved on the spot. The majority of grievances were related to water supply and traffic issues. Ajit Pawar personally oversaw the process till late afternoon, even working through his lunch break, to ensure swift redressal,” the NCP said.
By combining personal interaction, bureaucratic support, and digital tools, Jansamvad has emerged as Pune’s first-of-its-kind model for citizen engagement, the NCP said.
“The efficient integration of digital technology into the system enhanced accessibility. Citizens have registered complaints through department specific kiosks, a dedicated WhatsApp chatbot, and a helpline number. Each issue is documented, tracked, and monitored which guaranteed timely action. Following its successful start in Hadapsar, the campaign will be extended across Maharashtra, making it a continuous effort to improve public services and deliver accountable governance,” the NCP said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
