MUMBAI, MARCH 10: Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Narayan Rane on Friday charged the State Government with making Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, his son Uddhav and nephew Raj easy targets for terrorist groups and underworld gangs by reducing their security cover.Rane, a former chief minister, said, ``Chhota Shakeel and Dawood Ibrahim gangs had directed their guns at several Sena leaders to take revenge for the numerous encounters (during the Shiv Sena-BJP rule in the State) when many of the members of these gangs were gunned down.'' He further said the Government was lending credence to allegations that it had deliberately made such a move `to leave the field open' for the underworld dons to target the Thackeray family.Replying to Rane's charges, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said there was absolutely no reduction in the security provided to the members of the Thackeray family. ``The security cover is decided by a high-level committee of police officials. The Government has no say in expanding or pruning the same,'' he added.Continuing his tirade Rane said the Congress-led Democratic Front government is inefficient and directionless. He further said, ``When Deshmukh took over the reigns of the government, he had declared that the State was on the verge of bankruptcy and also presented a white paper to `expose' the erstwhile Sena-BJP government. But in the five months in the office, Deshmukh not taken any steps to restore State's economy neither initiated any austerity drive. ``There is absolutely no curb on the rising expenditure. Large sums of has been spent on the renovation of bungalows and cabins of the cabinet members. Also, the government has plans to purchase a helicopter at a cost of Rs 25 crore from the contingency fund.''Making light of all allegations, the Chief Minister said, ``Earlier, he was in the Opposition. Subsequently, he was not only a Cabinet member, but also the chief minister. He should know the procedures before levelling baseless charges of inefficiency against the Government.'' On the charge of Rane that the Government was not taking any action against Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi for making anti-national statements, Deshmukh said police officials have informed him that Azmi never made such statements. ``If Rane has the cassette of the programme, I am prepared to see it,'' he added.
