This is an archive article published on September 16, 2023
Sanjay Raut adamant on attending Maha govt presser after special cabinet meet, says ‘want to ask probing questions’
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut claimed the government is “terrified” at the thought of him attending the press conference and asking probing questions.
Sanjay Raut claimed the government is “terrified” at the thought of him attending the press conference and asking probing questions.
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Sanjay Raut adamant on attending Maha govt presser after special cabinet meet, says ‘want to ask probing questions’
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Despite the police asking him to stay away, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut has decided to attend a press conference scheduled to be held after the special state cabinet meeting in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, earlier known as Aurangabad, on Saturday.
”I have procured the pass which is given to reporters to attend the Chief Minister’s press conference. I will try to attend the press conference and ask a couple of questions, including those related to the government’s attempt to splurge crores by holding a special meeting here in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar,” Raut told The Indian Express.
The press conference by the Chief Minister and his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar is slated to be held in the afternoon. The special cabinet meeting is being held in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar to mark the 75th Marathwada Liberation Day or Marathwada Mukti Sangrama Din.
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Raut claimed the government is “terrified” at the thought of him attending the press conference and asking probing questions. “Two police personnel came to my hotel room and urged me to stay away from the press conference. The government is terrified, the government is tense, it cannot take inconvenient questions,” he said.
Raut said although he is an editor (Saamana’s executive editor), he is first a reporter. “I have started my career as a reporter and I have a right to attend the press conference. I will be going to the press conference. Let’s see if the police allow me. On my part, I do not want any tension to be created because of me,” he said.
On Friday, Raut reached Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar where the state cabinet meeting will be held after seven years. The government move has drawn severe criticism from the Opposition leaders who have questioned the logic behind the “extravagant display of wealth” at a time when the Marathwada region is facing drought.
Raut said, “I heard that the state cabinet is likely to clear a package of Rs 40,000 crore for the Marathwada region. The government should first answer questions as to what happened to the Rs 49,000 crore which was announced when Devendra Fadnavis was the chief minister in 2016.”
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He added, “The government had promised to set up a transport hub in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and provide jobs to over one lakh youths. What happened to the transport hub? Are they still trying to locate vacant land for the transport hub? What happened to the jobs that the government had promised? Devendra Fadnavis is again a part of the government. There are several such questions that we want to ask the government.”
“The cabinet meeting will be held only for a day. The CM and his deputies and scores of bureaucrats will stay for two days. As many as 30 rooms have been booked for the CM, his deputies and the ministers at a five-star hotel. For officials, security personnel and drivers, over 200 rooms have been booked. Crores are being splurged by the government at a time when the people of the Marathawada region are staring at a drought. Instead of taking steps to alleviate the miseries of the people, the government is taking steps to entertain itself. This is an anti-people government,” Raut said.
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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