Estranged partners Shiv Sena and BJP use every opportunity to take a swipe at each other since the break up after the assembly elections held in 2019.
It was BJP legislator and former minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s turn on Friday to take a dig at Shiv Sena on the expenses incurred by the party controlled BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation on penguin maintenance enclosure at Byculla zoo in Mumbai but recovering fees from the school children citing financial crunch. He was speaking during a discussion on the supplementary demands in the state assembly.
Mungantiwar claimed that the government had the money on the maintenance of the penguin maintenance enclosure at Byculla zoo by BMC but it was collecting money from poor children for school fees.
Mungantiwar also drew a comparison between the expenses on penguin expenses and the ministers’ monthly salary. He said Rs 6 lakh are spent on penguin maintenance against Rs 2.52 lakh salary of a minister. He taunted that the penguins seem to be more powerful than the ministers.
He narrated a story to further substantiate his argument. "I was told by a poor student that he could not get a job as he works for a payment of Rs 100. I told him good days will come. However, the student said he really wants to die and be born as a penguin in the Byculla Zoo. But I asked, why do you think that? The student told me that Rs 20,000 is spent daily on the maintenance of the penguin enclosure which means Rs 833 per hour and Rs 6 lakh a month.
Mungantiwar in his taunt to the Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, who was in the assembly, said even the ministers are not drawing that much salary.
