Journalism of Courage
The NCP,taking on rival parties in the civic polls, particularly the Congress the two parties are going it alone for the PMC pollson Saturday launched its election campaign for the February 16 polls,urging citizens to give NCP full majority to speed up development works in the city.
The NCP had to work in alliance with all political parties in the previous tenure which halted development plans due to differences within alliance partners. Only complete majority would pave the way for development projects in the city, said deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar launching the election campaign. It took six years for the urban development department,under chief minister Prithviraj Chavan,to approve the development plan of the 23 merged villages,he said.
The delay in taking decisions is hampering growth of the city. I fail to understand unnecessary delay in taking decisions, he added.
The DP for merged villages was approved only because NCP raised the issue. There was fear that NCP would make it a political issue,so the Congress leadership got it approved from the state government, he said. It was NCP MP Supriya Sule who stood by villagers of Phursungi and Uruli Devachi to resolve the issue of open dumping of garbage while the Sena MP was nowhere to seen and the Congress MP was in Tihar jail,said Pawar. The NCP is in favour of the underground metro rail keeping in mind future needs of the city,he said.
On celebrations recently among Congress leaders after the release of city MP Suresh Kalmadi from jail,he said,Kalmadi was in jail for corruption. To celebrate release of someone with corruption charges is not the culture of the city.
The image of city has got a beating after the arrest of city MP on corruption charges, Pawar said,adding there are many in the Congress who realise his participation in civic election campaign would have an adverse impact on performance of the Congress.
