MUMBAI: Even as the controversy over the naming of the newly inaugurated Bandra-Worli Sea Link bridge after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi last week has yet to die, the Maharashtra government had stirred another controversy and decided to name the Mumbai-Pune Expressway after late Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan, the first chief minister of Maharashtra.
Incidentally, Chavan is also the mentor of Nationalist Congress Party supremo and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who had been instrumental in suggesting the name of Rajiv for the Bandra-Worli bridge.
A state government communiqué released on Wednesday said: “The Mumbai-Pune Expressway has been named as Yashwantrao Chavan Expressway. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting. The contribution of Yashwantrao Chavan in the development of Maharashtra is unparalleled. This year we are also celebrating the golden jubilee of Maharashtra. The proposal to name the expressway in memory of Chavan was under consideration of the government. And the decision was taken.”
The saffron alliance during whose tenure the Mumbai-Pune Expressway was constructed had demanded that the expressway be named after renowned Marathi poet and writer P.L. Deshpande.
But the Congress-NCP led Democratic Front government in the state announced the naming of the expressway after Chavan, which had stirred another controversy with the SS-BJP alliance screaming foul.
The Sena had launched an agitation after the state government had named the Bandra-Worli Sea Link after Rajiv, demanding that the government name the bridge after militant Hindu leader Veer Savarkar instead of Rajiv. It had then demanded that the Mumbai-Pune Expressway be named after Deshpande.
Vimla Mundada, the state minister for public works department said here Wednesday, that the government had taken a decision to name the expressway after Chavan, and that the government had issued the government resolution to this effect.
The working president of the Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray reacting on the naming the expressway said, “The expressway had already been named after Deshpande. By renaming the expressway after Chavan, the state government had insulted a great Maharashtrain personality.”
In another development resident doctors in state government and municipal hospitals across the state went on strike since Tuesday night, demanding more stipend, better living conditions and security.
The strike has been called by Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD). A leader of the MARD said that the strike would continue indefinitely till their demands are met. A meeting of the striking doctors with state minister of health for medical education Rajesh Tope held on Tuesday night failed, with the government taking a tough stand and refusing to tilt to the demands of the doctor, which it called “unreasonable and unjustified.”
A unrelenting government’s stand to bow to the doctors demand, has drawn strong support from the people, who voiced their anger against the sudden strike by the doctors. “That now the government has the support of the people, it should take strong and stern action, sack the doctors, cancel their registration and vacate them from the hospital,” said Vijay Deshmukh, a youth Congress leader.
The government had put a contingency plan in place, to ensure that patients are not put to any inconveniences. All Out Patient Department (OPD) patients are being attended by Head of Departments, lecturers, senior doctors and doctors summoned from Public Health Department (PHD). A state health ministry official told “Arab News” that functioning of government and municipal hospitals throughout the state was smooth with no interruptions or problems.
A MARD doctor said that their demand is that they be given a rise in the stipend from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 45,000 per month, l on par with the resident doctors of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, reduced working hours and better security, and better hostel accommodation.
