Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday slammed Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan calling him “paralysed”. Mr Pawar, who was speaking at a book release function on former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in Pune, targeted the chief minister, hinting that he took months to sign files.
“We have had many chief ministers like (Ashok) Chavan, Vilasrao Deshmukh and others before them, they would see the files, study them and then just sign and clear the files. However, nowadays we don’t know if people can clear files because they have been afflicted with paralysis,” said Mr Pawar.
Mr Pawar said that he found it amusing as to why decisions were not being taken fast. “Files are not being cleared for more than three months now. Our work is not being cleared… however, since we are together (in an alliance with the Congress) we won’t raise this issue,” said Mr Pawar.
The NCP chief further said, “I have seen Vilasrao Deshmukh work personally, both as an MLA and as a parliamentarian, one of the things that makes a good leader is how he understands an application brought before him and how he doesn’t bother reading the whole application, but reading the main parts of it and then clearing them. Vilasrao Deshmukh was like this and (Ashok) Chavan was also like this.”
While the NCP chief refrained from naming the current CM directly, it was no secret who he was targeting. Mr Prithviraj Chavan has been the target of the NCP leadership who have been saying that the he was not clearing files fast enough and does not take quick decisions. The CM has, however, denied the allegations and said that he has cleared more files than any other CM in the state.