Joshi to demand Rs 1,000 cr for Mumbai update

Thursday, August 14 1997

Joshi to demand Rs 1,000 cr for Mumbai update

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

MUMBAI, August 13: Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi today said he would urge Prime Minister I K Gujral to allocate Rs 1,000 crore for developmental work in the metropolis.

Joshi said he would raise the issue with Gujral when he meets the latter in Delhi soon to discuss the traffic problems. Speaking at a function organised to release a book titled Mumbaicha Kayapalat published by the Mumbai BJP unit, he said among all the problems being faced by the denizens of Mumbai, traffic and transportation related issues were important.Tardy Cong chips in with its share for jubilee celebrationsÎEXPRESS NEWS SERVICE®MUMBAI, August 13: Off to a late start with its Golden Jubilee celebrations, the Maharashtra Congress has tried to make up for its indolence by organising torch processions through the city on Thursday.

Live torches will be carried by hundreds of Congress workers through the streets and bylanes of Mumbai culminating in the party offices at midnight. Noted Gandhian Usha Mehta will hoist the national tricolour at the Azad Maidan office of the Brihanmumbai Regional Congress Committee at midnight on August 14.

The party which won India its freedom appeared to be rather edged out of government celebrations of the Golden Jubilee on August 9. No Congress leader was present at the ceremonies at August Kranti Maidan from where Mahatma Gandhi issued his Quit India call. While part of the reason was outrage at the hosting of the events by the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance which are looked upon with suspicion for their previous abuse of Mahatma Gandhi, many State and national Congress leaders were busy with the party plenary at Calcutta.

However, the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee has now drawn up a long list of programmes to be undertaken in the Golden Jubilee year of India's Independence. This includes re-establishing grassroots contact at the village and block levels where the party had lost touch with the masses in recent years.

The Congress tricolour will also be unfurled at every district and block level office, homes and party offices in the villages.

Moreover, the year long celebrations also involve establishment of cells to listen to the grievances of the people at the grassroots level and the renewal of the war against corruption in high places, Congress sources said.