Mumbai, July 17 (IANS) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief leader Eknath Shinde on Thursday led a scathing attack against Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray, without naming him, saying that their policy was “Contractor First” against the MahaYuti government’s “Mumbai First” policy.

He also targeted Thackeray over the cleaning of Mithi river silt, saying that the contract was not given to Dino Morea and not to Dinu More (a Marathi contractor).

He warned that if Bollywood actor Dino Morea opens up his mouth, it will be embarrassing for them. He chose to corner his former boss at a time when the special investigation team is investigating the alleged corruption in the Mithi river cleaning.

Further, the Enforcement Directorate has recently questioned Dino Morea and his brother in this connection. Shinde was replying to a debate under Rule 293 in the state assembly.

Shinde also slammed Thackeray over the alleged scam in the distribution of khichdi during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mumbai.

“Who are you accusing of corruption?” he asked. He also refuted corruption charges and pro-contractor policy while awarding contracts for the concretisation of roads in Mumbai.

“Once concrete roads are built, they do not need to be repaired for 25 years. So who was doing the work of repairing them every year, turning black into white, and stealing money by doing repair work?” he asked, targeting Thackeray, recalling that contractor-favoured policy was implemented during the 25-year rule by Shiv Sena.

“However, we went to wash the roads with a deep clean drive, while your people washed the coffers,” he said.

“After becoming the Chief Minister, I called Chahal (former Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner Iqbal Chahal) for the first time and told him about the potholes and then ordered him to build all the roads in two phases. ⁠The first phase has been completed, and we are doing concreting, so Mumbai will be pothole-free. Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region have the potential of a 1.5 trillion dollar economy against the government’s ambitious target of Maharashtra becoming a 1 trillion dollar economy. We are being accused of breaking Mumbai, but we are the ones who connect it,” he said.

Shinde also accused the Thackeray camp of forcing Marathi people to leave Mumbai and shift to distant places.

“MahaYuti government launched a slew of initiatives to bring the Marathi people back to Mumbai,” he claimed.

He added that the voters have shown faith and confidence in MahaYuti and brought them back to power, reminding Thackeray and the opposition that the voters did not go by the latter’s fake narrative while showing their place in the state assembly elections.

–IANS

sj/dan