No alliance with communal parties in future: NCP

“Henceforth,there will be no alliances with communal parties even at the local level,” NCP state chief R R Patil said addressing party workers.  The NCP had been under criticism over its alliance in the PMC. The alliance is believed to have taken place to keep followers of Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi away from power in the PMC.

Patil said NCP believes in keeping communal forces away from power,but had to forge an alliance at the local level due to unavoidable circumstances.

“We will study the circumstances in which this alliance came into existence. However,the commitments made have to be fulfilled. In future no such alliance will take place,” Patil said.

“The Congress has been raising a hue and cry over the NCP allying with saffron parties,” he said,adding that a similar arrangement of the Congress exists in some other local civic bodies. “The Congress too should not forge any alliance with saffron parties at any level in future,” he said.

Senior NCP leaders had been maintaining it was merely a local arrangement that would not affect the party in state and national politics. The party seems to have realised that the PMC alliance had hurt it in the Lok Sabha polls.

Water situation bad: Ajit Pawar
Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday said the water available can meet the demand of the city for only 17 days. “This is for the first time in 50 years that monsoon has been delayed to such an extent. A crisis situation is likely as there is no rainfall. The available water can last till July 15,” he said. He told people to use water carefully. Irrigation officials said water levels in dams had dropped to 0.75 TMC in Panshet and Khadakwasla.