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This is an archive article published on October 3, 2017

Now, Sena minister dedicates cleanliness drive to NCP leader

Diwakar Raote launches cleanliness drive at over 500 MSRTC depots, says R R Patil’s Sant Gadgebaba Swachhata Abhiyan set an example before nation

MAHARASHTRA Transport Minister Diwakar Raote on Monday caused quite a stir after his ministry dedicated the cleanliness drive launched at over 500 Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) depots to former deputy CM R R Patil, who was an NCP leader, but completely ignored Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat initiative.

The transport ministry on Monday published advertisements in a section of the media, announcing the launch of the cleanliness campaign at all MSRTC depots and bus stops. It held a function in Mumbai to launch the campaign and had invited Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his cabinet colleague Vinod Tawde, besides Sena leaders Aditya Thackeray and Industry Minister Subhash Desai. Tawde was present at the function, but the chief minister gave it a miss.

The advertisement carried pictures of Fadnavis, Tawde, Raote, Aditya and Desai. However, the advertisement neither carried the photo of the Prime Minister nor made a mention of the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” launched by him three years ago.

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At the bottom of the advertisement, a strip dedicated the transport ministry’s cleanliness drive to R R Patil “who through his Sant Gadgebaba Swachhata Abhiyan set an unique example before the nation”. Reacting to the advertisements, NCP spokesperson Nawab Mallick said, “In this dishonest government, it is glad to know that there are some ministers who speak

the truth.” Mallick said it was R R Patil who had launched his Swachh Bharat mission much before Modi and had embarked upon the cleanliness drive in the whole of Maharashtra through the “Sant Gadgebaba Swachhata Abhiyan”.

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said, “Those who first derided Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and are now releasing advertisements and patting themselves for launching cleanliness drive are only highlighting their own doublespeak….”

When contacted, Raote said that PM Modi’s cleanliness mission is at the national level while his ministry has launched the drive in Maharashtra for cleaning bus depots and bus stops.

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“It has been dedicated to R R Patil because he initiated the drive and did exemplary work which set an example before the nation to emulate,” he said. As for the CM giving his function a miss, Raote said Fadnavis was busy with his Vidarbha tour on Monday. “But everyone else, including Vinod Tawde, was present,” he added.

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


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