26 November,2024 09:26 PM IST | Mumbai | Rajendra B. Aklekar
Niranjan Shetty. File Pic/X
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday lashed back at the NCP (SP), stating that it has a "bad habit" of opposing welfare schemes just because it is in the opposition. "It always opposes good things," the party said.
"Whenever the BJP introduces welfare schemes, the people's enthusiastic response to them causes pain in the stomach of the opposition. But as the lives of the people start getting better with these schemes and BJP's popularity begins increasing, the opposition, irritated by their own earlier stand, starts making strange and lame excuses," BJP chief spokesperson Niranjan Shetty said.
"As soon as Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav announced a welfare scheme to make all local trains in Mumbai air-conditioned, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar opposed it. The opposition to the welfare scheme by a veteran leader like Sharad Pawar, who has been the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, a Union Minister, and has been in politics for a long time, was incomprehensible. In fact, it was expected that he would welcome the scheme. His party should not have done politics in the matter of welfare schemes, at least," Shetty added.
"After a huge response from Mumbaikars to the plan announced by Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, the sand began to slide under the feet of the NCP, and they took a new stance.
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"We wanted the Mumbai local trains to be air-conditioned without increasing ticket prices," he said.
"But don't you find this weird? It is surprising that a leader who has been a Union Minister doesn't understand that while people are getting the benefit of technology, we can't avoid its costs. It is not possible to avoid the necessary expenditure of any technology-driven welfare scheme," Shetty said.
A mid-day article on the possibility of Mumbai's AC local trains getting a push now that the BJP and Mahayuti government are in power has firmly triggered a reaction from the NCP's Sharad Pawar on Monday.
NCP national spokesperson Clyde Crasto said the opposition was to the higher fare structure, not to AC trains per say, challenging Vaishnav to get it done.
"The fare of AC trains is more than the regular local trains, which is not acceptable to the commuters. We are representing commuters and fighting for them," he told mid-day.
"Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw must walk the talk. A fake narrative was created in the name of Sharad Pawar, when asked why Mumbai's AC local train plans were stranded. Will he implement the plans now that the BJP has the mandate in Maharashtra? Or will he find another excuse?" Crasto said.
