MUMBAI, 8 November 2007 — The Congress-led Democratic Front (DF) Maharashtra government headed by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh came under harsh attack from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a day after Congress congratulated Deshmukh for successfully completing three years of its governance.
Nitin Gadkari, state BJP president, launched an attack on the state government during a press conference stating that the Congress-led DF government in Maharashtra has failed to fulfill promises made three years ago and that it was responsible for bringing the state from number one to sixth position in the last three years.
“The DF government has been portraying an impressive and rosy picture of its achievements and beating drums highlighting its performances by spending huge amounts on advertisements and publishing the interview of the chief minister. But this is not going to conceal the fact that it has failed miserably to complete its major infrastructure projects on time,” said Gadkari.
“Projects like the Bandra-Worli Sealink, MUTP and MUIP are still pending,” he said.
The state government is burdened with borrowings to the tune of several thousand crore rupees, Gadkari said. “Although not successful in developing the state, the government has definitely been successful in plunging the state into darkness. There is a deficit of 7,000 mega watts of power, but hardly any effort is being made to reduce the deficit. Also, thousands of farmers are committing suicides, but the government seems to be apathetic toward their misery,” said Gadkari.
Meanwhile, alarmed by rising crime against women in Pune and Mumbai in the last three days where call center women employees have been raped, murdered, and also brutally attacked by drivers from Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies, P.S. Pasricha, the state director general of police, said that police have instructed call centers to check the credentials of its drivers.
Pasricha said that the Maharashtra police are in the process of building up a complete database of all BPO and call centers operating in the state, and has asked them to check thoroughly the credentials of drivers employed by them.
“BPOs have a tendency to hire young women as employees and therefore, they need to take all possible precautions. The state police are compiling a database of all such companies in the state. We have always been advising BPOs and call centers to carefully scrutinize the credentials of drivers prior to hiring them,” said Pasricha.
Speaking about preventive measures that could avoid and repeat incidents like that of Pune and Mumbai, Pasricha said that the police would intensify night patrolling and carry out checks on vehicles. “The need is to have an increased element of surprise in this regard,” the police chief said.
