Pune Congress has issued a stern warning, threatening to stage a protest inside Metro officials' offices if the Metro service between Shivajinagar and Swargate does not begin by Friday (September 27).
Originally, this section of the Metro was set to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but his planned visit to Pune has been canceled.
Arvind Shinde, the city president of Congress, declared that if the Metro service is not operational by the end of the week, senior citizens would perform the inauguration themselves.
This announcement was made at a press conference attended by prominent figures including MLA Ravindra Dhangekar, former city president Adv. Abhay Chhajed, ex-corporator Ajit Darekar, Rafique Shaikh, and former Education Board president Sangeeta Tiwari.
Shinde criticized the repeated and costly inaugurations of Metro projects by Modi, pointing out that these events waste crores of public money. He suggested that such inaugurations could be conducted remotely from Modi's office, as has been done previously, instead of spending large amounts on political events.
Dhangekar urged the government to set aside political games and allow senior citizens to inaugurate the Shivajinagar to Swargate underground Metro route, making it immediately accessible to the public.
He emphasized that the funds used for repeated inaugurations could be better utilized elsewhere. Highlighting that Congress was instrumental in the Metro's initial stages without resorting to excessive publicity, Dhangekar advised the current government to avoid unnecessary spending on political pageantry.
He suggested that future inaugurations could be led by state-level officials, such as the Chief Minister or Deputy Chief Minister, rather than the Prime Minister.
During the conference, Dhangekar also posed ten pointed questions to Prime Minister Modi. He questioned the handling of corruption allegations related to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue and demanded accountability for the growing number of crimes against women, which now averages 21 incidents daily in Maharashtra.
