Maharashtra government team for rain loss relief 'lacking': Sharad Pawar

NASHIK: NCP president Sharad Pawar on Friday said the leader of the opposition and other party leaders were visiting various districts hit by heavy rainfall and their feedback revealed that the state government needed to concentrate on the situation. He said "the team of government that is needed for this (relief work) is lacking."
When asked about the delay in cabinet expansion in Maharashtra, Pawar said it seemed "both (CM Eknath Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis) are confident that they can run the government on their own, and, hence, the work is continuing". The NCP chief, who is also a former Union agriculture minister, said this while speaking to the media in Nashik.
On Shinde's tour coveriing the regions represented by Shiv Sena leaders supporting him, Pawar said, "It is good that the CM is conducting a tour, and he has to decide where he should go. The leader of the opposition (Ajit Pawar) has toured the areas where farmers have been hit. People are in distress. If anyone wants to take any lesson from it, it is up to them."
On talks that the Shinde government would be short-lived and elections would be held, Pawar said he was not an astrologer and had no such information. "If elections are held, we are ready for it. If the polls are not held, we are keeping a watch on the way the government is functioning."
Though Pawar said he would not comment on holding elections for over 300 local bodies without OBC quotas till the copy of the SC order was with him, he said "from the information available, prima facie there is a concern that this large section of society will be thrown out of governance and administration".
The NCP chief criticized the Shinde government for cancelling the projects approved by the previous MVA dispensation. Pawar said it was not proper to cancel the projects that were already in the tender process or for which work orders had been issued.