Ashish Shelar slams Sena UBT’s ‘double standards’ on Dharavi project

 BJP Mumbai unit president Ashish Shelar alleged, that Uddhav Thackeray has exposed his double standards on the Dharavi redevelopment project, adding that the Shiv Sena (UBT) president had supported the project when he was the chief minister but now in the Opposition, he is taking to street protests.

Today those who are opposing the redevelopment of Dharavi by demanding homes of 500 sq ft were the ones responsible for floating the project’s tender, Shelar said. “It was Uddhav Thackeray’s government that laid down the terms and conditions (for the project). Why didn’t they decide during their tenure to give houses of 500 sq ft each,” he asked.

Shelar said the Sena’s UBT faction opposes all development projects in Mumbai. Citing a few examples, he said that when the project to install LED lights was proposed, they were against it. “When projects like using BEST buses for advertising to generate revenue was proposed, they opposed it. When the pedestrian bridge at old Elphinstone and now Prabhadevi railway station collapsed, we requested to call the engineering department of the military as a matter of urgency to fix it. The two bridges were built and completed in 117 days. But they had opposed it as well,” the BJP leader pointed out.

The Dharavi Redevelopment Project has become the latest flashpoint between the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) as the latter plans to march from Dharavi to Advani's office in  Mumbai today. While Uddhav accused the Maharashtra government of ignoring the people’s demands and favouring the business conglomerate, CM Shinde reminded the former chief minister of a host of projects that his government had stalled, impending the development of the state and its people.