Shiv Sena, MNS fight to take credit for re-opening of Shivaji Park pool

With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections a few months away, the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) are locked in a duel to claim credit for the re-opening of the swimming pool in Dadar.

On Sunday, the BMC re-opened the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Olympic (MGMO) swimming pool near Shivaji Park after it was shut down last August due to severe water crisis in the city. The pool — one of the oldest in the city — has more than 15,000 members. However, ever since it was decked up, in 2011, to Olympic standards, the pool has found itself in the news for all the wrong reasons — leaks, fee hikes, filtration issues, and lack of medical facilities or officers.

Saying that it was MNS that has been relentlessly pursuing the issue, group leader of the party in the BMC Sandeep Deshpande said, "We have raised this issue in both the standing committee and general house more than five times. I have all the documents and letters, wherein we have exposed not only the shoddy work done by the contractor and the pathetic condition of the infrastructure inside, but also pressed the demand that the pool must be opened soon," said Deshpande, brandishing the point of order letters on the issue sent by the party.

"Even in the last standing committee meeting (August 10), I had raised the pending and much-delayed opening of the pool with the administration," he added.

He rubbished the claims made by the Sena, which has put up posters in and around Shivaji Park, saying it was their efforts that had ensured the re-opening. "It is nothing but claptrap theatrics by them (Sena)," ridiculed Deshpande.

However, Yuva Sena office-bearer and son of MLA Sadanand Sarvankar, Samadhan, said the entire issue has been dramatised by the MNS as part of its tactics before the upcoming civic elections.

"Who are they to claim anything? We have all the documents, covering letters pressing the demand on the BMC to open the swimming pool. The Sena has been following the issue and constantly putting pressure on the administration" he said.

Even as this fight continues, Dadar residents are irked for different reasons.

Castigating the two parties, citizens claimed that the real concerns of the locals were being ignored. "No one is talking about bad roads, potholes or open spaces," said a resident, Prakash Kirtane.