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A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Pune to inaugurate the city’s Metro rail project and other development works, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Friday took a dig at Modi and said the Prime Minister is coming to inaugurate Pune Metro project “which has still not been completed”.
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“He will inaugurate an incomplete project…I have no complaints about it,” Pawar said.
The Congress, NCP’s partner in Maharashtra’s MVA government, said it will stage a protest — both parties said BJP is falsely claiming credit for Pune Metro work, and that the saffron party had objected to it when the then Congress-NCP government in the state had chalked out the plan.
Pawar said Pune Metro officials had taken him on a guided tour of the Metro a few days ago. “The Prime Minister will take the same route. While travelling by the Metro, I realised that the work has still not been completed fully…Therefore, it is clear that the Prime Minister is set to inaugurate an incomplete Pune Metro,” he said.
Pune Metro officials said that out of total 32 km of the project on two corridors, a 12-km stretch – 5 km in Pune city and 7 km in Pimpri-Chinchwad — will be inaugurated by Modi on Sunday.
Meanwhile, rejecting the demand for resignation of Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, Pawar also said that Malik’s arrest was “politically motivated”. “He is being linked to Dawood Ibrahim because he is a Muslim,” Pawar said. He also said Malik’s family is being deliberately harassed.
Slamming BJP for demanding Malik’s resignation, Pawar told the media, “I don’t think Union minister (Narayan) Rane was asked to resign after he was arrested recently. BJP has different yardsticks…”
Rane was arrested in August 2021 in Ratnagiri district for his statement that he would have slapped Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for forgetting the year India got freedom during the Independence Day speech.
