'Act before it's too late', Cong MLA urges Maha CM

In an embarrassment for the Congress -led government in Maharashtra, the party's legislator from Mumbai, Baba Siddique, today criticised chief minister Prithviraj Chavan over his government's slow decision making and the high-handedness of the bureaucracy.
"The need of the hour is to introspect on our performance. Chavan is being misguided by the bureaucrats who are calling the shots in decision making," Siddique said.
"NCP chief Sharad Pawar admitted a couple of days ago that UPA-II and Maharashtra government had made wrong appointments of bureaucrats as some of them (joined BJP) immediately after quitting or retiring from their jobs.
"There are a few more examples of wrong bureaucratic placement at key posts in the state administration. Clearance for a real estate project on Marine Drive by a former BMC commissioner is one such example," he added.

Siddique lashed out at the government over the delay in key infrastructure projects like conctruction of the second phase of the sea link, water transport and coastal roads.
On the Local Body Tax, he said that it should be scrapped. He also demanded decision over the occupation certificate to 4,000 buildings and the implementation of the Afzalpurkar committee report.

He also warned the chief minister that Congress will have to pay heavily in the upcoming Assembly elections if quick decisions were not taken.
Siddiqui said, "In 2009, when Congress president Sonia Gandhi came to inaugurate the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, I felt a lot was going to happen. The Sea Link will be extended from Worli to Haji Ali in the second phase.

"However, due to bureaucratic intervention, we were told that a coastal road will be better. In the last five years, nothing has happened."
He pleaded with the chief minister to act before it was too late.
"We made many promises but did nothing. We need to do something or will lose the confidence of the people," he added.