Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday targeted the Eknath Shinde-led state government over flooding in Mumbai, Thane and Pune after heavy rains pounded the cities a day ago.
Addressing a press conference here, he said the Western Express Highway in Mumbai, a major connecting road in the western suburbs, was flooded on Wednesday, an occurrence reported only after the July 26 rains in 2005. He alleged that the mechanisms to provide relief to people in Mumbai when such incidents occur were absent.
"We (the undivided Shiv Sena which controlled the Mumbai civic body from 1997 to 2022) were always there, but no one from the Sena-BJP was there on the ground yesterday to help people in Mumbai, Pune and Thane. No officer from the civic bodies was seen on the ground to deal with the situation," Thackeray said.
Places like Hindmata (in Mumbai), where flood mitigation steps were taken, were also inundated. There are 400 pumps and five pumping stations in the city, but they did not work effectively, he said. The former minister also claimed that the appointment of 15 assistant municipal commissioners has not been done in the last two-and-a-half years.
"Where will people go to address their issues in the absence of local representatives?" Thackeray asked, pointing out that polls to the civic bodies must be conducted at the earliest.
Thackeray said the civic bodies in the state are governed by administrators who report to the Urban Development Department, which is under the chief minister. He also targeted Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav over the delay and overcrowding of trains due to rains.
