While the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena described the mayor as a “fool”, the Shiv Sena demanded his resignation for his alleged irresponsible statement on the issue.
Cutting across party lines corporators on Wednesday lashed out at the city mayor, Mohansingh Rajpal, for his comments that 90% of the corporators do not understand the annual budget of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
While the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) described the mayor as a “fool”, the Shiv Sena demanded his resignation for his alleged irresponsible statement on the issue. But corporators of Rajpal’s own party, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) refrained from making any comments.
Rajpal’s statement on the issue came on Tuesday evening while releasing a release of a booklet on the annual budget (211-12) of PMC ‘My City, My Money,’ brought out by Janwani, an NGO.
Group leader of MNS, Ravindra Dhangekar, told reporters that the city has not seen such a mayor in the past. “He is a fool,” Dhangekar fumed, questioning the mayor’s rationale in making such statements.
“He should control himself and should not make statements which would make citizens ashamed.
If corporators did not understand the budget, then more than 60 of them would not have participated in the discussions on it,” he argued.
Shiv Sena group leader Sham Deshpande said that if corporators are without intellectual ability then it is unbecoming of him to lead such corporators. “Rajpal should resign from his post,” he demanded.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) group leader Mukta Tilak said the discussion on the budget continues for three days and all corporators take part in it. “Yet, if Rajpal thinks that corporators do not understanding, then may god grant him wisdom,” she said.
Congress group leader Aba Bagul said it may be a slip of tongue by Rajpal, but he should correct his mistake. Independent corporator Ujwal Keskar said Rajpal has implied that those who do not have understanding have elected him mayor.
Rajpal told reporters that he did not mean to hurt anybody’s feelings. “I meant that the manner in which the budget is written is very complicated. Even I do not understand the budget and so 90% of corporators cannot do so,” he said, stressing that the budget should be prepared in a more simplified manner.
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