Pune has the most number of active COVID-19 cases in the country. The district is reporting a massive number of cases and deaths on a daily basis. The medical infrastructure is questionable and the opposition is targetting the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Amid all this, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is also Pune's Guardian Minister, are not likely on the same page.
Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday said that Thackeray had opposed the lifting of lockdown in Pune in a hurried manner. “Uddhav saheb has maintained from the beginning that more attention needs to be given to Pune. The lockdown was lifted in a hurried manner and the chief minister had opposed it. But now Pune is following the Mumbai pattern (in tackling Covid-19 cases),” Raut said.
With his statement, Raut has indirectly blamed MVA partner NCP and Ajit Pawar for the situation in Pune. He was speaking on the crisis in the cultural capital and the death of journalist, Pandurang Raikar, who did not get a cardiac ambulance from the city's Jumbo COVID Centre to a hospital barely 7 km away.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA Siddharth Shirole has warned Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA that if the 'failures' in Pune remain unaddressed, the citizens 'will take to the streets'. "Even after 6 months, they have failed to build a COVID-19 medical infrastructure that can save lives of critical patients. The launch of Jumbo Hospitals can only be called as deception," he said.
"Built by spending over Rs.200 Crores of public funds the Jumbo hospitals were supposed to be dedicated Treatment centers for critical patients, but unfortunately they are woefully understaffed, untrained and reek of impropriety & corruption," he added.
On Friday, Pune district reported 3,447 new coronavirus cases, taking its COVID-19 count to 1,84,516. The death toll reached 4,416 with 83 new fatalities.
Of the 3,447 cases, 1,617 are in Pune Municipal Corporation limits, which now has 1,02,076 patients. However, 1,830 patients were also discharged from the hospitals.
With 1,005 new cases the count in Pimpri Chinchwad now stands at 53,289.
