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  India   Row over Modi mantri copter trip

Row over Modi mantri copter trip

PTI
Published : Apr 21, 2016, 2:09 am IST
Updated : Apr 21, 2016, 2:09 am IST

After revenue minister Eknath Khadse, Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh’s helicopter trip in drought-hit Maharashtra kicked up a storm with a BJP worker alleging that 10,000 litres of water

After revenue minister Eknath Khadse, Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh’s helicopter trip in drought-hit Maharashtra kicked up a storm with a BJP worker alleging that 10,000 litres of water were used to prepare a makeshift helipad.

The matter came to light after Dayanand Nene, a BJP worker and president of the Alert Citizens Forum of India, wrote to Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis urging him to put a stop to such “colossal wastage” of water during VIP helicopter visits at a time when the state in facing acute scarcity of water.

In an e-mail to Mr Fadnavis, he said the helipad was prepared on a ground using gallons of water brought by tanker for the minister’s chopper to land when Mr Singh came to attend a programme of Gram Kisan Abhiyan in Bhiwandi on Monday.

Mr Nene also attached photographs of the tanker spraying water on the ground, the welcome arch, the minister being received and the hoarding of the programme, and also the chopper carrying the minister making a landing.

In his letter, Mr Nene said, “As I too am a BJP activist, I had gone there one day earlier. And what I saw was terribly disturbing. Gallons of water through tankers were being poured on a huge piece of land, which later I understood was a makeshift helipad being put in place for (Mr Singh’s) helicopter to land.”