Mumbai, March 25: The strain in the relationship between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), coalition partners in the ruling Democratic Front (DF), is coming out in the open, literally.
The Bandra-Worli Sea LinkSo far confined mostly to closed-door cabinet meetings, the exchange of barbed verbal volleys reached the public forum on Wednesday when top leaders from both parties let go at each other during the inauguration ofthe north carriageway of the Bandra-Worli sea link.
Deputy chief minister and senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal was the first to take a jibe at chief minister Ashok Chavan. While urging his colleagues to speed up work, Bhujbal said, “People often talk of the enormous delays in our infrastructure projects. My request to all my cabinet colleagues is to implement projects at a faster pace.”
Given the recent spats over delay in execution of projects, it was clear who he was hinting at. “It is often observed that the ministers are sitting on vital files for as long as a year. If this continues, I must warn you that we (the government) will not survive for a long time. The decision-making process has to improve and it should be much faster,” he said.
The NCP ministers have been accusing Chavan of not clearing crucial files for sometime.
The CM, during his speech, returned the favour by making sarcastic remarks on the functioning of organisations controlled by NCP ministers. “Though it is a fact that certain projects such as the sea link have taken exceptionally long time to complete, I must tell Chhaganji that his and my pace of work are quite fast.”
Referring to ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara…’, a song presented by a group of artistes earlier during the event, he said, “We must remember that all of us have to work together to achieve the progress of this state. Therefore it is very important that our ‘musical notes’ should perfectly match.”
Further, commenting about the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), Chavan remarked that the corporation seems to be working on the whims and fancies of the chairman that it gets. “It has been observed that whichever town or city the MSRDC minister hails from gets developed. First it was Nagpur (when NCP leader Anil Deshmukh was the chairman), now it is Beed (the hometown of present chairman Jaydatt Kshirsagar). Though smaller towns in the state should progress, the priorities can change,” he said.
The presence of actor Amitabh Bachchan provided the glamour quotient to the ceremony. “I am an artiste. Hence I look up to this structure as a wonderful work of art. I thank the government for providing a new iconic structure to the city which has improved the traffic scenario,” he said.
—Agencies