Congress, BJP engage in a verbal war before municipal elections

PUNE: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Pimpri Chinchwad are engaged in a verbal war in the run up to the ensuing municipal elections early next year.
While the NCP has charged that the government had not included Pimpri Chinchwad in the Smart City list the second time, the BJP has said that because of alleged irregularities and corruption in the JNNURM projects, the government itself had decided not to include the city in Smart City mission.The NCP has further said that Pimpri Chinchwad had received the Best City award and that it is among the first ten cities under Swachh Bharat abhiyan. A couple of days back, Sanjog Waghire, the NCP unit chief had said if there are irregularities in JNNURM projects, the Central and the State governments should initiate an inquiry as the BJP is in power.
Countering this, spokesperson of the Pimpri Chinchwad unit of the BJP Sadashiv Khade said the government is set to initiate the process of an inquiry into the projects. Khade said that the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation is about to give Rs 700 crore to the Central government because of incomplete projects. "It is the citizens who are going to suffer because of the incomplete JNNURM projects", he said.
The Pimpri Chinchwad unit of the BJP has already made allegations about irregularities and corruption in the idol purchase scheme, installation of gas crematoriums at various places, and escalation of cost in the pedestrian flyover in Bhosari against the ruling NCP which governs the municipal corporation. The urban development department has ordered an inquiry into the allegations.