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Mayor Shubha Raul, who decided to go ahead with the ceremony after President Pratibha Patil's office informed of her unavailability, admitted the chief minister is not among the dignitaries who will be present. “It is a BMC function,” she reasoned. But, only a few months ago, Deshmukh and Uddhav Thackeray had jointly inaugurated the BMC's revamped e-governance system, its citizen’s portal and the civic data-hub at Worli.
Congress corporator and leader of Opposition in the BMC Rajhans Singh said he was unaware of the decision. “It’s a decision taken by the administration and I am not aware why the CM has not been invited,” he said.
While the inauguration was almost finalized for January 7, to be conducted at the hands of President Pratibha Patil, her visit could not be confirmed. An earlier date of December 26 also had to be rescheduled. Raul said that since she had assured Mumbaiites that the museum would be opened in the new year, she wanted to keep that promise. “We cannot keep delaying the inauguration every time,” she had told Newsline on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party has said it will launch a protest at the inauguration over what it calls the “handover” of the museum to the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), which has executed the restoration work of the heritage structure and the artifacts. NCP Corporator Mangesh Bansode said: “The museum belongs to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation but the keys and the management have been taken over by private parties. A decision should be taken on this before inaugurating the museum.”
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