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Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday took a jibe at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in connection with a bus accident on the Samruddhi Expressway that killed 25 by claiming people had told him such fatalities become "Devendrawasi".
The 701-kilometre Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg, which is now operational on a 601 kilometre stretch from Vidarbha's largest city to Bharvir in Nashik, is considered the brainchild of Fadnavis.
However, it has been plagued by accidents since it was opened for the public on December 12 last year, which have killed several score people.
A bus carrying 33 passengers from Nagpur to Pune on the Samruddhi Expressway overturned and caught fire in Sindkhedraja in Buldhana at 1.32 am, killing 25 occupants.
"A number of accidents have taken place on the Samruddhi Expressway. I have once travelled on the route. When people were asked about their experience, they told me the one who dies in an accident on the Samruddhi Expressway becomes a 'Devendrawasi'," Pawar told reporters in Pune.
"The work on the expressway has not been done scientifically and this may be the reason for so many accidents. Ex-gartia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the deceased is not the solution. A committee of experts must be appointed to avert such accidents," he added.
Pawar said there are complaints of lack of signboards on the route and, therefore, there was need for a thorough inspection of the entire route so that it is made safe for commuting.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said Pawar had hit below the belt with the 'Devendrawasi' jibe.
Bawankule claimed Pawar, as chief minister, did not meet the kin of the deceased and those injured in the stampede in Nagpur on November 23, 1994, in which 114 members of the Gowari community were killed, and returned to Mumbai.
Citing the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and the firing on farmers in Maval on August 9, 2011, Bawankule said these were events which still cause pain to those involved and asked if "those who died in these incidents be called "Sharadwasis".
Fadnavis worked hard to make Samruddhi Expressway a reality and the route was being used by lakhs of people who were saving time, Bawankule said.