Politics over projects: ‘Cong & NCP taking credit for our work’

The saffron combine has invited Savitribai Sathe, daughter-in-law of Sathe, to inaugurate the memorial. “The ruling political parties in the PMC are playing dirty politics to take credit for the infrastructure projects that were initiated by corporators of the Shiv Sena and BJP,” said BJP legislator Madhuri Misal at a press conference jointly organised by the two parties.

City Shiv Sena chief Shyam Deshpande said the project was proposed 10 years ago by corporators of Sena and BJP, but was opposed by the Congress and NCP. “The leaders of saffron combine had to frequently take it up with the civic administration to complete the work. It took 10 years for us to turn it into reality, but now the ruling NCP and Congress are taking credit for the project,” he said.

Local BJP corporators Manasi Deshpande and Sunil Kamble had proposed the inauguration of the memorial by senior party leader Gopinath Munde. However, NCP corporators displayed the name of Pawar for inauguration and removed the name of Munde from the proposal. “It was inappropriate to make changes in the proposal and that too without informing those who signed it. This is dirty politics and would set a bad trend in the city,” said Deshpande.

BJP legislator Girish Bapat said Pawar was being kept in dark by local leaders who want to impress their party chief by calling him for the inauguration. “We don’t have a problem with Pawar inaugurating the memorial as he is a senior politician, but the way NCP corporators went about it is wrong,” he added.

Recently, MNS leader Vasant More had warned NCP corporators from going ahead with inauguration of musical fountain at Katraj Lake at the hands of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. “The PMC had taken up the project on my insistence. I had proposed it to be inaugurated by MNS chief Raj Thackeray, but the ruling NCP has decided to get it inaugurated by Ajit Pawar. We will not allow that to happen,” he had said.

NCP leader Subhash Jagtap said the allegations made by the saffron combine are baseless and being made keeping an eye on the forthcoming general elections. “The inauguration is being done as per the proposal approved in the general body. The claim made by the BJP and Shiv Sena that the project was their initiative is wrong as the budgetary provision was made by the leaders of NCP heading the standing committee,” he added.