He ruled out provision of Rs 5 crore as grant-in-aid for the KDMT ``to ensure its smooth running,'' as demanded by KDMT chairperson Prakash Penkar. ``This only increases ad hoc expenditure under unnecessary heads,'' he said, adding, ``First prove what you can do on your own steam, the state willthen do its bit if needed.'' He also advised the newly-appointed KDMT staff to ``avoid unionbaazi and get down to work.''

He called the KDMT ``another in the line of Shivshahi's many epoch-making decisions'' and stressed that the alliance government was the first to fulfil its election manifesto. ``We have fulfilled 90 per cent of the promises in our vachannama,'' he said.

He said the Sena-BJP government was focussing on transport and communications since they formed the basic infrastructure for development and quoted figures saying that while the Congress had managed to develop only 69 per cent `throughout-the-year roads,' the alliance government had developed 98 per cent of them.

Others present at the function were Environment Minister Chandrakant Khaire, former MP Prakash Paranjpe, former tourism minister Jagannath Patil, Sena leaders Satish Pradhan, Anand Dighe, KDMC commissioner G T Badri and mayor Anita Dalwi.