With civic elections round the corner, the city unit of Congress today performed the 'bhoomipujan' of the Pune Metro Rail project, a day before its formal launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Congress said the event was a "symbolic protest" against BJP-led government's "deliberate delay" in clearing the project.
The Congress was also miffed at NCP for reversing its stance to hold a parallel function with the state government assuring that party supremo Sharad Pawar would be invited to share dais with the PM.
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The ground-breaking ceremony was held at Swargate junction by former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.
Talking to PTI after the event, Chavan said, "Metro project was Congress' idea and we had taken concrete steps towards it. Today's programe was a symbolic protest."
"Pune and Nagpur cities had got in-principle approval for Metro rail projects in March 2014. Six months after that, work on Nagpur project commenced. However, the Pune project was deliberately delayed in view of the upcoming civic body elections. Today's function was meant to protest this deliberate delay," he said.
"We wanted to expose the double standards of the BJP-led government and their sham for the development of the Pune city, as the project should have been cleared long back. However, BJP deliberately passed the project keeping the civic elections in mind," Chavan said.
A number of Congress leaders from the city were present on the occasion.
On December 20, accusing the BJP of taking credit of the Metro project, city Mayor Prashant Jagtap had warned that NCP would get the project inaugurated at the hands of party chief Sharad Pawar on Friday. However, NCP cancelled the plan a day later, after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assured that Sharad Pawar would be invited for sharing the dais with PM.
The Congress said that as the NCP backed off after CM's mediation, it had decided to go ahead with the separate inauguration programme.
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