Mumbai: After an aggressive demand of chief minister’s resignation in the wake of Naxal attack in Gadchiroli, by Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s tour to drought-affected districts, CM Devendra Fadnavis hurriedly convened a meeting of the state cabinet on Thursday to discuss on both the sensitive issues.
After winding up the state cabinet meeting the CM air-dashed to Gadchiroli to take stock of the situation and pay tributes to the 15 police personnel who were martyred on Maharashtra Day. To complicate matters further for the state government, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to reply to the governments plea to relax the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) to deal with the drought situation in the state and deal with the naxal attack.
Ashok Chavan, president, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) and Pawar slammed the government accusing it of failure in tackling the Naxal menace. Besides demanding the resignation of the CM, Chavan demanded the government to grant Rs 50 lakh compensation to kith and kin of each of the deceased police personnel.
Chavan further remarked the CM has failed to tackle the situation and should tender his resignation as the Home minister. Reacting to the Naxal attack, Pawar in a sarcastic jibe remarked that resignations are demanded from those who have some shame left in them irrespective of whether they care for the public sentiments.
“But this cannot be expected from the present day rulers of Maharashtra. Today there is nothing more left other than condemn the naxal attack and express grief over the martyrdom of the police personnel,” Pawar said. Earlier, in the day Fadnavis directed all the guardian ministers to visit drought affected areas to review situation on ground, visit cattle and fodder camps, deployment of water tankers and other drought relief measures.
He further instructed the guardian ministers to ensure that enough employment is provided in the rural areas to stop migration of labour to cities. The Chief Minister also reviewed the situation arising out of weather forecast of possible delay in monsoon this year.
