Time constrains led Mayor to perform Bhoomipujan of the site of Nagpur Mahotsav in a short ceremony
Nagpur: The Bhoomipujan of Nagpur Mahotsav 2015 was performed by Mayor Pravin Datke at Yeswant Stadium spiced with a wordy duel between Mayor Praveen Datke and the Chairman of Standing Committee on January 14, 2015.
Mayor Praveen Datke was irked with the Chairman of the Standing Committee since he was not informed about the time of the Bhoomipujan of Nagpur Mahotsav well in advance.
According to sources, the Mayor had reportedly directed the Chairman of the Standing Committee to fix the time of the Bhoomipujan at 11 am. Assuming the time to be 11 am, the Mayor reached the venue at 11 am. However, the Chairman of the Standing Committee alleged that he had verbally informed the Mayor and had sent an SMS message to the Mayor about the details of the Bhoomipujan too. The Chairman of the Standing Committee showed the SMS sent to Mayor on his mobile phone. So angry was the Mayor that he practically shouted at the Chairman of the Standing Committee saying “Mujhe Apna Mobile Ka SMS Math Dikhao” (Don’t show me the SMS of mobile).
The Mayor was probably in some haste since he directed the officials to perform the Bhoomipujan soon. The organizers of the Nagpur Mahotsav and the Pandit requested that they be seated on the ground and the Bhoomipujan be performed with the entire rituals. However, the Mayor shouted at them too and directed them to just hit the ground with a pickaxe and perform a short Bhoomipujan.
Well no one can argue with the First Citizen of the city, can they? So the Pandit performed a small Puja and after affixing a tilak on the forehead of the Mayor, they handed over the pickaxe to him. After that Mayor Praveen Datke, Deputy Mayor Munna Pokulwar, Girish Gandhi, Nagpur Municipal Commissioner Hardikar, Standing Committee Chairman Borkar, Ruling Party Chief Tiwari and other hit the ground with the pickaxe and performed the Bhoomipujan.
Earlier a heavy debate was going between the very senior officials of NMC and Office-bearers that Nagpur Mahotsav is being organized at Yeshwant Stadium, but the paint of the place used for seating has been peeled off. Almost everybody agreed that painting can be done before the start of the Nagpur Mahotsav. On this proposal too, the Mayor showed his anger and said that the Municipal Corporation is cash strapped and the Mahotsav has to be conducted in the existing position. The response put almost everybody silent after that.
Mayor Praveen Datke, Deputy Mayor Munna Pokulwar, Nagpur Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar, Girish Gandhi, Ruling Party Chief Dayashankar Tiwari, Chairman of Standing Committee Narendra Borkar, Advisor to the Chairman of Standing Committee Prafulla Farkase, Sandeep Joshi, NIT Trustee Elect Munna Yadav, Standing Committee Chairman Elect Ramesh Shingare, Mahesh Dhamecha, Prakash Warade, Jitendra Gaikwad, A team from Agmark, Gopal Bohre, Kishore Gajbhiye and many officials and Office-Bearers of NMC and Corporators were present for the Bhoomipujan ceremony of Nagpur Mahotsav.
