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State govt's negligence responsible for Mumbai blasts: Gurudas Kamat

Kamat, who visited his constituency Mumbai North West for the first time after his resignation, criticised the state government for not learning a lesson from the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.

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Sulking Congress leader Gurudas Kamat, who recently quit the Union council of ministers, has blamed the Maharashtra government for the 13/7 triple bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai.

Kamat, who visited his constituency Mumbai North West for the first time after his resignation, criticised the state government for not learning a lesson from the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.

"If 5,000 CCTV cameras would have been set up in different parts of Mumbai, last week's bomb blasts at Opera House, Zaveri Bazaar and Dadar would not have taken place," he said.

"The government should have taken stern steps to improve the security after the November 2008 terror strikes. But, the government has not learnt a lesson and precautions that needed to be taken were ignored," he said.

He also said that the state government had failed to procure patrol boats and construct coastal police stations.

Kamat said he had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi soon after the blasts, stating that steps, which needed to be taken in last three years had been sidetracked.

"Last week's blasts took place due to the negligence of the state government, police and intelligence agencies," Kamat said.

Meanwhile Kamat today asked the media not to distort or look at any suggestions made by public representatives with "jaundiced/coloured eyes" and attribute motives.

He lashed out at the media for attending his function without invitation, seeking his views on the blasts and then projecting his comments as that of a 'sulking leader' and an attempt to seek publicity or attract attention.

"There is no need for me to sulk as I had given up my ministerial post voluntarily and there was no need to attract attention as I was not seeking any position anywhere," he said.

"Maharashtra has a good chief minister, who is barely six months into his job and therefore the opinions expressed are certainly not directed towards him. We need to strengthen his hands," Kamat said.

Kamat has also appealed the chief minister to take urgent and strictest possible action against whoever is responsible for lethargy, incompetence, dereliction of duty, whether it is a minister, officials or police personnel, to ensure that such incidents do not take place in future and the government does not wait from blast to blast to wake up and initiate action.

"The citizens of Mumbai cannot bear or tolerate any further incident of this type," he said.

Kamat pointed out that as a public representative from Mumbai for the last 26 years, it was his duty to take up these issues with the leadership at the Centre as well as the State and that he had also written to the chief minister Prithviraj Chavan about the urgent need to implement the recommendations of various experts who have submitted reports in the past on this subject.

Elaborating on the security measures, Kamat said that 22 coastal police stations are yet to come up, purchase of sophisticated armaments for the police personnel and providing infrastructure for a Training Centre for Commandos in Goregaon remains to be done.
 

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