Rohit Pawar alleges Rs 7,000-8,000 crore graft in Nashik Simhastha works, targets Girish Mahajan

Politics over development works has heated up in Nashik right after the flag-hoisting ceremony of the Simhastha Kumbh Mela. Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) MLA Rohit Pawar held a press conference and alleged that large-scale financial misappropriation is under way in Nashik in the name of Rs 35,000 crore of development works and religion.

According to Pawar, Guardian Minister Girish Mahajan and his associates alone have indulged in corruption worth Rs 7,000 to 8,000 crore. Pawar made the allegation at the press conference.

Comparing the cost with earlier Kumbh Melas, Pawar said Rs 2,378 crore was spent on the Nashik Kumbh in 2015, Rs 3,183 crore on the Ujjain Kumbh in 2017, Rs 4,200 crore on Prayagraj in 2019, and about Rs 7,500 crore on the Prayagraj Kumbh in 2025. Against this, he said, the Rs 35,000 crore expenditure for Nashik is unreasonable, and Rs 7,000 to 8,000 crore of corruption has resulted from it.

Pawar said that on going around Nashik, one cannot see where the Rs 35,000 crore of works are. He claimed that roads and works that were in good condition are being deliberately dug up and fresh tenders floated. He also said that fifteen to sixteen people lost their lives this monsoon because of substandard work and potholes. "Are these development works or death traps?" he asked angrily.

Pawar said all of them want works to be done in Nashik. He said, "We too go to temples, but we do not do politics in the name of religion and gods." Saying that the Bharatiya Janata Party's attempt to drop the pebble of corruption in the name of religion would never be acceptable to them, he warned that he would soon make a major revelation backed by evidence.

Pawar also spoke on the question of information. He said he had given an official letter to the divisional commissioner, the district collector and the Kumbh Mela commissioner seeking information. He claimed, however, that Girish Mahajan has told officials not to give information to Rohit Pawar. He said he was giving a deadline of 10 days, failing which he would make public evidence of the officials' misdeeds and benami assets.

Pawar said that trees planted in Nashik with CSR funds were felled, and the officer who felled them opened his own hotel there. He demanded an inquiry into where this money came from.