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Journalism of Courage
After the coronavirus lockdown led to a temporary lull in the constant political bickering among various parties in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the civic body’s recent decision to relax the lockdown in the city, which has seen over 100 virus-related deaths, has triggered a fresh round of political slugfest.
It all started when Mayor and BJP leader Murlidhar Mohol expressed his unhappiness about the decision to relax the lockdown in non-containment zones of the city. This prompted the city unit chiefs of the three opposition parties in PMC – NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena – to criticise the ruling BJP about the “lack of coordination” between it and the civic administration.
City NCP chief Chetan Tupe, city Congress chief Ramesh Bagawe and city Shiv Sena chief Sanjay More said, “The pandemic situation in the city is getting worse and there is poor implementation of the containment plan. There is no coordination between the BJP and the civic administration as the mayor has publicly criticised the decision to relax the lockdown.”
Mohol hit back at the three parties and sought to know “where they had been for the last 40 days”, since the city went under lockdown and the civic administration has been working towards enforcing it. “The pandemic situation is tough and should not be politicised. If the opposition is levelling charges… I want to ask them where they were for the last 40 days,” he said.
Mohol claimed the civic administration had done a good job of containing the pandemic. “I am still of the opinion that the lockdown across the entire city should have been extended till May 17, as declared by the Union government. The cooperation of local residents for the last 40 days would go to waste if the pandemic spins beyond control due to the relaxation…,” Mohol said, adding that he had conveyed the same to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is also the guardian minister of Pune district.
The mayor said if the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena were serious about the well-being of local residents, they should reach out to their leaders who were heading the state government. “The alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress is ruling the state… the PMC has relaxed the lockdown on the instruction of the state government so the local leaders of NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena should ask their leaders in the state government to cancel it,” he said.
Meanwhile, all BJP corporators in PMC have decided to donate one month’s remuneration to the PM-CARES fund.
