Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar questioned Thursday the need for a function to mark the start of the work of King Shivaji's memorial off Mumbai coast after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone.
Pawar was speaking to reporters here a day after a man drowned when a boat carrying 25 people, including a couple of government officials, capsized in the Arabian sea.
The officials and others were on their way in four boats to the site of the proposed memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj where the work was to begin Wednesday.
"I do not understand what was the need for a government function at the site when the prime minister had already conducted a bhoomi-pujan ceremony. Was it because somebody (in the government) did not like the ceremony conducted by the PM?" Pawar asked.
"An inquiry must be conducted into the incident, but the state should first know the reason behind government officials going for this event especially when the chief minister himself was absent," Pawar said.